UC-NRLF 


LIBRARY 

UN  IV 
CALIFC; 


i 


THIS  CHILD  is  SET  UP  FOR  THE  FALL  AND  RESURRECTION  OF  MANY  IN  ISRAEL. 


THE  LIFE 


OF 


JESUS  CHRIST 

EMBRACING  THE  ENTIRE 
GOSPEL  NARRATIVE 

.    Embodying  the  Teachings  and  the  Miracles  of  Our  Saviour 

TOGETHER  WITH    THE    HISTORY  OF 

His  Foundation  of  the  Christian  Church 

BY 
REV.    WALTER    ELLIOTT? 

Of  the  Paulist  Fathers 

NINETEENTH   THOUSAND 


NEW  YORK 

THE  COLUMBUS  PRESS 
1908 


[DAN  STACK 


BT301 


fUbtlotetat: 

REV.  REMY  LAFORT,  S.T.L., 

Censor  Deputatus. 


•ffmprfmatur: 

4-  MICHAEL  AUGUSTINUS, 

Archiepiscopus  Neo-Ebor* 

77  Augusti,  1901. 


COSVRIGHT,  1901,  BY  "THE  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY  OF  ST.  PAUl 
THE  APOSTLE  IN  THE  STATE  OF  NEW  YORK." 


PRHITEO  AT  THE  COLUMBUS  PR£*S,  120  WUT  60TM  St. 

103 


/ 

/ 
PREFACB. 


HP  HIS  work  is  a  contribution  to  the  devotional 
study  of  our  Redeemer's  teaching  and  ex- 
ample. It  engaged  the  author's  best  thoughts  and 
endeavors  during  several  years.  It  is  hoped  that 
it  may  help  the  Catholic  reader  to  a  more  vivid 
appreciation  of  our  Lord's  life  and  doctrine ;  its 
main  purpose  is  to  move  hearts  to  love  Him  fer- 
vently. Perhaps  He  may  bestow  a  blessing  upon 
this  humble  offering ;  for  though  in  itself  of  little 
enough  value,  yet  it  is  given  with  all  the  love  of 
which  the  author  is  capable. 

And  he  trusts  that  this  Life  has  some  special 
features  which  will  recommend  it.  One  of  these  is 
that  it  contains  the  entire  Gospel  history,  omitting 
only  strictly  verbal  repetitions.  The  reader  will  thus 
have  the  four-fold  narrative  of  the  inspired  authors 
blended  together  into  the  continuous  account  of  our 
Saviour's  career  from  first  to  last,  together  with 
such  passages  from  the  other  books  of  the  New 
Testament  as  furnish  additional  testimony. 

This  portion  of  the  work  is,  for  the  most  part, 
ruled  off  separately  from  the  text;  and  the  writer 
hopes  that  it  will  always  be  read,  piece  by  piece, 
and  very  carefully,  as  a  preliminary  to  each  chap- 
ter. To  help  the  reader  to  understand  and  appre- 


ii  PREFACE. 

ciate  this  divine  narrative  has  been  the  author's 
only  purpose.  He  has  closely  followed  the  most 
generally  used  Catholic  versions,  and  on  disputed 
points  has  adhered  to  the  more  commonly  accepted 
views. 

Another  advantage  is  in  the  use  made  of  the^ 
modern  art  of  pictorial  illustration.  The  book  is 
full  of  pictures,  so  numerous  and  so  carefully  se- 
lected as  to  make  a  Life  of  Christ  by  themselves. 
The  publishers  have  been  aided  in  this  by  skilful 
artists,*  and  certainly  have  reproduced  those  contri- 
butions of  Christian  a'rt  most  helpful  to  a  devout 
realization  of  our  Redeemer's  mission.  This  book 
is  intended  to  be  the  religious  photographic  album 
of  the  Catholic  household. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  the  Life, 
besides  giving  our  Saviour's  history,  affirms  and 
briefly  proves  the  doctrines  He  taught  and  deliver- 
ed to  His  Church,  whose  divine  authority,  whose 
sacraments,  and  whose  incorporation  into  a  living 
body  are  all  fully  explained. 

Of  course  there  is  not,  nor  could  there  be,  any 
claim  to  originality  in  this  work.  Readers  acquaint- 
ed with  Le  Camus's  beautiful  Vie  de  Jesus  will, 
perhaps,  notice  the  influence  of  the  earlier  chapters 
of  that  inspiring  writer.  The  author  acknowledges 
his  debt  to  him,  and  also  to  other  Catholic  bio- 
graphers of  our  Lord. 

*  Especially  by  Rev.  P.  J.  McCorry,  C.S.P.,  to  whose  artistic  skill  and 
taste  we  are  mainly  indebted  for  the  illustrations. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 
OUR  SAVIOUR'S  PEOPLE  AND  COUNTRY. 

PAGE 

Palestine  and  the  Children  of  Israel, I 

Jerusalem  and  Judea,        .        . 4 

The  Perea  and  the  Transjordan, 8 

Samaria,     .        .         ..., 9 

Galilee, 10 

The  Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  .        .        .        ,        .        .        .12 

The  Synagogues  and  the  Sanhedrin, 14 

The  Roman  Power  in  Palestine,        ......  15 

The  Hope  of  Israel, 18 

The  Writings  which  tell  of  Jesus, 19 


BOOK  I. 
THE  HIDDEN  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  Miraculous  Conception  of  John  the  Baptist,  41 
II.  The  Birth  and  Circumcision  of  John— The  Can- 
ticle of  Zachary,          .         .         .         .        .         .45 

III.  The  Divine  Origin  of  Jesus  Christ,      ...  48 

IV.  The  Descent  of  Jesus  according  to  the  Flesh,      .  51 
V.  Mary  of   Nazareth  and   Joseph   her  espoused 

Husband,    ........  54 

VI.  The  Son  of  God  becomes  Man,    ....  57 

VII.  Mary's  Visit  to  Elizabeth— The  Magnificat,        .  62 

VIII.  The  Marriage  of  Mary  and  Joseph,      ...  67 

IX.  Jesus  is  born  at  Bethlehem,  73 

X.  The  Child  Jesus  is  Circumcised,  ....  80 

XI.  The  Adoration  of  the  Magi,          ....  84 

XII.  The  Child  Jesus  is  Presented  in  the  Temple — 

Simeon,  and  Anna  the  Prophetess,  ...  91 

XIII.  The  Flight  into  Egypt— The  Slaughter  of  the 

Innocents — The  Return  to  Nazareth,         .         .  96 

XIV.  The  Childhood  of  Jesus, 102 

XV.  The  Child  Jesus  among  the  Doctors  of  the  Law,  107 

XVI.  The  Hidden  Life  at  Nazareth,     .         .        .         .113 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK  II. 


THE  PUBLIC  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  John  the  Baptist  prepares  the  Way  for  Jesus,     .  121 
II.  The  Baptism  of  Jesus— "Thou  art  My  Beloved 

Son!" 126 

III.  The  Preparation  in  the  Desert,    ....  133 

IV.  The  Temptation, 139 

V.  John  the  Baptist  and  the  Chief  Priests—"  Be- 
hold the  Lamb  of  God  !  " 145 

VI.  Jesus  chooses  Disciples,        .        .        .        .        .151 

VII.  The  Wedding  at  Cana, 156 

VIII.  Jesus  returns  to  Jerusalem  and  Expels  the  Traf- 
fickers from  the  Temple — He  proclaims  His 

Authority, .    ....   161 

IX.  Jesus  begins  to  Teach  in  Jerusalem — The  Inter- 
view with  Nicodemus,        .        .        .        .        .     166 

X.  Teaching  in  the  Country-places — Final  Witness 

of  John,      .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .173 

XI.  The  Imprisonment  of  John  the  Baptist — Jesus 

and  the  Samaritan  Woman,      .        .        .        .175 

XII.  The  Harvest  and  the  Reapers,     .        .        .        .182 

XIII.  The  Return  to  Galilee— The  Healing  of  the 

Ruler's  Son, 184 

XIV.  At  Nazareth, 186 

XV.  Capharnaum — "I  will  make   you    Fishers   of 

Men," 191 

XVI.  Vanquishing  an  unclean  Spirit — Healing  Si- 
mon's Wife's  Mother— All  Galilee  is  Evan- 
gelized,   193 

XVII.  Teaching  from  Peter's  Barque — The  Miraculous 

Draught  of  Fishes, 202 

XVIII.  The  Cleansing  of  a  Leper, 205 

XIX.  Jesus  returns  to  Capharnaum — Cure  of  the 
Paralytic,  and  the  consequent  Dispute  with 

the  Pharisees, 208 

XX.  Matthew  the  Publican — The  Time  for  Fasting 

and  the  Time  for  Feasting,        .        .        .        .212 
XXI.  The  Woman  Cured  of  an  Issue  of  Blood— The 

Raising  to  Life  of  the  Daughter  of  Jairus,        .    217 


CONTENTS.  v 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXII.  The  final  Calling  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  .        .    223 

XXIII.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount,         .        .         .      230-252 

XXIV.  Healing    the    Centurion's    Servant— The    Two 

Blind  Men— The  Dumb  Devil,  .         .         .         .253 

XXV.  The  Miracle    at    the  Probatic   Pool— Sabbath- 

breaking— Jesus  asserts  His  Divinity,        .         .     256 
XXVI.  Plucking  the  Bars  of  Wheat  on  the  Sabbath- 
Healing  the  Man  with  the  Withered  Hand — 
Conspiracy  between  the  Pharisees  and  Hero- 
dians,          ........     264 

XXVII.  The  great  Miracle  of  Nairn,        .        .        .        .269 

XXVIII.  The  Messengers  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,     .        .     272 

XXIX.  The  Magdalen  at  the  Banquet 276 

XXX.  At  Nazareth  again, 281 

XXXI.  Evangelizing  Galilee — The  Devout  Women  who 

ministered  to  Jesus,   ......     283 

XXXII.  The  sending  forth  of  the  Twelve  Apostles— The 

Apostolic  Virtues,      ......     287 

XXXIII.  The  Opposition  of  the  Pharisees— The   Blind 

and  Dumb  Devil— Christ  and  Beelzebub — 
"  Blessed  is  the  Womb  that  bore  Thee  "—The 
Mother  of  Jesus  and  His  Brethren,  .  .  .  294 

XXXIV.  Teaching  by  Parables— The  Sower— The  Candle 

—The  Mustard-seed— The  Leaven— The  Cockle 
— The  Hidden  Treasure — The  Pearl  of  Great 
Price — The  Net — New  Things  and  Old,    .         .     303 
XXXV.  The  Stilling  of  the  Tempest— The   Legion  of 

Devils  and  the  Herd  of  Swine,  .         .         .314 

XXXVI.  The  Imprisonment   of  John   the   Baptist— His 

Martyrdom,         .         .         .         .         .         .         .319 

XXXVII.  Jesus  Multiplies  the  Loaves  and    Fishes — He 

Walks  upon  the  Water,      .....     3^4 

XXXVIII.  The  Bread  of  Life 331 

XXXIX.  Many  Disciples  go  back  from  Jesus  on  account 

of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Eucharist,       .         .         .     339 
XL.  Eating  with    Unwashed    Hands — Inward    and 

Outward  Defilement, 342 

XLI.  The  Syro-Phcenician  Woman,     ....     346 
XLH.  In  the  Decapolis — Healing  the  Deaf  and  Dumb 
Man — Second    Miracle    of    the    Loaves   and 
Fishes, 349 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XLIII.  *The  Pharisees  again  Demand  a  Sign  in  the 
Heavens — "  Beware    of   the    Leaven    of    the 
Pharisees  "—The  Blind  Man  at  Bethsaida,       .    352 
XLIV.  "Thou  art  Peter,"       .        .         .         .        .        .    356 

XLV.  Jesus  Foretells  His  Death, 361 

XL, VI.  The  Transfiguration, 364 

XLVII.  The  Lunatic  Boy, .369 

XLVIII.  The  Passion  again  Foretold—Jesus  and  the  Pay- 
ment of  the  Tax — The  Dispute   about  Prece- 
dence,         ........     372 

XLIX.  The  Sin  of  Scandal — The  Guardian  Angels — 

The  Good  Shepherd  and  the  Lost  Sheep,          .     378 
L.  Fraternal  Correction — "  If  He  will  not  hear  the 

Church  " — The  Wicked  Servant,       .         .        .     382 
LI.  Farewell  to  Galilee—"  Woe  to  thee,  Corozain  !  "     385 
LII.  The  Journey  from  Galilee  to  Jerusalem — "Fire 
from  Heaven" — "The  Son  of  Man  hath  not 
where  to  lay  His  Head  " — "Let  the  Dead  bury 
their  Dead  " — "  Looking  Back, "      .        .        .    390 
IJII.  Jesus  in  Jerusalem  at  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles — 

He  Teaches  His  Divine  Mission,       .        .        .    393 
LIV.  Jesus  offers  the  Waters  of  Life— The  Attempt  to 

Apprehend  Him  in  the  Temple,         .        .        .     397 
LV.  The  Woman  taken  in  Adultery,         .        .        .    401 

L VI.  Jesus  the  Light  of  the  World 405 

LVII.  "You  shall  Die  in  your  Sins  "—Jesus  Teaches 
true  Freedom— The  Secret  of  Life— "Before 
Abraham  was  Made,  I  Am, "  .  .  .  .  407 

LVIII.  The  Man  born  Blind 415 

LIX.  Contention  with  the  Pharisees  about  the  Restor- 
ation to  Sight  of  the  Man  born  Blind,       .         .     417 
LX.  The  Shepherd  and  the  Sheep,      .  .         .    420 

LXI.   "  I  am  the  Good  Shepherd, "      ....     425 

LXII.  The  Good  Samaritan 428 

LXIII.  Mary  and  Martha, 431 

LXIV.  Jesus  Teaches  His  Disciples  how  to  Pray — The 

Lord's  Prayer,    .         .         .         .         .         .        ..     435 

LXV.  The  Watchful  Servants— The  Thief  in  the  Night,     444 
LXVI.  Jesus  at  the  Feast  of  the  Dedication  of  the  Tem- 
ple— He  again  Teaches  that  He  is  God,    .         .    447 
Hypocrisy — "  Woe  to  you  Pharisees  !"      .        .    452 


CONTENTS.  vii 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

LXVIII.  "  Who  hath  appointed  Me  Judge  or  Divider 

over  you?" — Covetousness,      ....  458 
LXIX.  Healing  the  Infirm  Woman  on  the  Sabbath  Day 

—The  Dropsical  Man 460 

LXX.  First    Places   at   Table— The    Great    Supper: 

"Compel  them  to  Come  In,"   ....  461 
LXXI.  The  Chosen  Few— The  Slaughter  of  the  Gali- 
leans and  the  Falling  of  the  Tower  of  Siloe,    .  464 
LXXII.  "Why  Cumbereth  it  the  Ground  ?  "  .        .        .468 
LXXIII.  "  This  Man  began  to  Build  and  was  not  able  to 

Finish," 469 

LXXIV.  Jesus  is  Warned  against  Herod,  .        .         .         .  472 
LXXV.  Lessons  of  Mercy— The  lost  Groat— The  Prodi- 
gal Son,      473 

LXXVI.  The  Unjust  Steward, 477 

LXXVII.  Dives  and  Lazarus, 481 

LXXVIII.  Lessons  in  Humility — The  Pharisee    and    the 

Publican, 484 

LXXIX.  The  Raising  of  Lazarus  from  the  Dead,       .        .  486 
LXXX.  "It  is  expedient  that  one  Man  should  Die  for 

the  People," 492 

LXXXI.  The    Unjust  Judge  who    heard   the  Widow's 

Prayer, 495 

LXXXII.  The  Sending  of  the  Seventy-two  Disciples,         .  497 

LXXXIIL  "  Where  are  the  Nine  ?" 501 

LXXXIV.  The  Laborers  hired  at  the  Eleventh  Hour,         .  502 
LXXXV.  Riches  and  Poverty,  and  Christian  Perfection,  .  506 
LXXX VI.  The  Hundred-fold  in  this  Life  and  Life  Ever- 
lasting Hereafter,       ......  509 

LXXXVII.  The  Sacrament  of  Matrimony,    .         .         .         .511 

J+XXXVIII.  Christian  Virginity  and    Celibacy— Jesus    and 

Little  Children,          .        .        .  •  .        .517 

BOOK  III. 

THE  PASSION  AND  DEATH  OF  JESUS. 

I.  "Behold  we  go  up  to  Jerusalem,"       .         .         .  523 

II.  The  Ambition  of  the  Sons  of  Zebedee,         .        .  526 

III.  The  Blind  Man  at  the  Gate  of  Jericho,       .        .  531 

IV.  Zacheus  the  Publican,          .....  534 
V.  The  Parable  of  the  Ten  Pounds,         .        .        .  537 


ritt  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

VI.  "  Six  Days  before  the  Passover,"        ...    540 
VII.  Mary  Magdalen  anoints  Jesus,     ....    542 
VIII.  The  Procession  of  Palms,     .        .        .•       .        .    547 
IX.  Christ  Weeps  over  Jerusalem,      .        .        .        .553 
X.  Jesus  and  the  Barren  Fig-tree,     ....    556 
XI.  "Unless  the  Grain  of  Wheat  falling  into  the 
Ground  shall  die  " — The  Voice  from  Heaven  : 
"  That  you  may  be  the  Children  of  Light,"     .     558 
XII.  The  Temple  again  Purged  of  Buyers  and  Sel- 
lers— "By  what   Authority  dost   thou   these 
things?" 561 

XIII.  The  Parable  of  the  Two  Sons,      ....     $65 

XIV.  The  Parables  of  the  Wicked  Husbandmen  and 

of  the  King's  Supper, 566 

XV.  The  Relation  of  Church  and  State,     .        .        .569 
XVI.  "  They  shall  neither  Marry  nor  be  Married,"    .    571 
XVII.  The  Great  Commandment— "  What  think  you 

of  Christ?" 575 

XVIII.  "  The  Scribes  and  Pharisees  have  sitten  on  the 
Chair  of  Moses  " — "Woe  to  you,  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  "—The  Widow's  Mite,      .        .        .    578 
XIX.  The  Unbelief  of  the  Pharisees— The  Union  oi 

the  Messias  with  His  Eternal  Father,        .         .    585 
XX.  The  Terrible  Prophecy  of  the  Destruction  of  the 

City  and  the  End  of  the  World,         ...     588 
XXI.  The  Prophecy  of  the  End  further  enforced  and 

enlarged, 591 

XXII.  Personal  Application  of  the  Vision  of  Judgment,     596 

XXIII.  The  Wise  and  Foolish  Virgins— Faithful  and 

Slothful  Servants, 598 

XXIV.  The  Last  Judgment,     ......     6qi 

XXV.  Jesus*  prepares    for  his  Last  Supper,  and  the 

Chief  Priests  make  a  Bargain  with  Judas,         .     603 

XXVI.  Jesus  Celebrates  the  Jewish  Passover,        .        .    607 

XXVII.  Jesus  Washes  His  Disciples'  Feet,       .        .        .610 

XXVIII.  "Is  it  I,  Lord?" 613 

XXIX.  The  Beginning  of  the  Last  Discourse— The  De- 
nial of  Peter  foretold — Strife  for  Pre-eminence,    617 
XXX.  The  Last  Discourse  continued  :  "  I  have  Prayed 
for  Thee"— Second  Prediction  of  Peter's  De- 
nial— The  Incident  of  the  Two  Swords,    .        .621 


CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXXI.  The  Last  Discourse  continued:  "I  am  the 

Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life,"  .  .  .  623 

XXXII.  The  Last  Discourse  continued :  Jesus  Dis- 
courses of  the  Holy  Spirit — How  the  Father 
and  the  Son  and  the  Spirit  dwell  in  the 
Church  and  in  the  Soul  of  each  Christian,  .  625 

XXXIII.  The  Holy  Eucharist, 630 

XXXIV.  Jesus  resumes  His  Discourse  :  Union  with  Him 

is  the  Condition  of  all  Spiritual   Life— The 
Identity  of  Joy  and   Love  and  Obedience — 
"  Love  one  Another,  as  I  have  Loved  You  " — 
The  Witness  of  the  Spirit,        .  .        .         .        .633 
XXXV.  The  Last  Discourse  is  concluded :  Jesus  Fore- 
tells Persecution — Renewed  Promise    of  the 
Holy  Ghost — Sorrow  shall  be  turned  into  Joy,    637 
XXXVI.  Jesus  Prays  for  His  Church,         .        .        .        .641 
XXXVII.  Jesus  begins  His  Passion,    .        .        .        .        .645 

XXXVIII.  The  Agony  in  the  Garden, 648 

XXXIX.  Jesus  is  Betrayed  with  a  Kiss,      ....    656 
XL.  The  Resistance  of  the  Apostles  and  their  Flight,     658 
XLI.  Jesus  is  led  before  Annas  and  Caiphas— The  De- 
nial of  Peter, 660 

XLH.  The  First  Trial  of  Jesus  before  the  Sanhedrin— 

Third  Denial  of  Peter, 664 

XLHI.  The  Terrible  Night  of  Holy  Thursday,       .        .    669 

XLIV.  Jesus  before  the  Sanhedrin,          ....    670 

XLV.  The  Despair  of  Judas  and  his  Suicide,        .        .    672 

XLVI.  Jesus  before  Pilate, 674 

XL  VII.  "Art  Thou  King  of  the  Jews?"        .        .        .677 
XL VIII.  Pilate  sends  Jesus  to  Herod,        .        .        .        .680 
XLIX.  ' '  Barabbas  or  Jesus  ? '  '—Pilate's  Wife's  Dream— 

"  Crucify  Him  !  " 684 

*  L.  Jesus  is  Scourged  and  Crowned  with  Thorns — 

"  Behold  the  Man  !" 688 

LI-  Pilate's  final  Struggle— The  Death-sentence,      .    691 
LII.  The  Way  of  the  Cross,        .        .        .        .        .694 
LHL  The    Crucifixion— The    Inscription— "  Father, 

Forgive  Them  !" 698 

IJV.  The  Triumph  of  the  Conspirators— The  Good 

Thief— "  Woman,  behold  thy  Son  1"       .        .    702 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

IvV.  The  Death  of  Jesus 708 

IvVI.  After  the  Crucifixion, 713 

LVII.  The  Burial  of  Jesus,     .        .       .  .        .717 


BOOK  IV. 

THE  RESURRECTION. 

I.  The  Resurrection — The  Empty  Sepulchre,         .    723 
II.  The  Apparition  of  Jesus  to  Mary  Magdalen,       .     729 

III.  The  Apparition  of  Jesus  to  the  Holy  Women — 

How  the  Chief  Priests  explained  the  Resur- 
rection  73* 

IV.  Jesus  Appears  to  Peter ;  and  to  Two  Disciples 

on  the  Road  to  Emmaus,  .....     736 
V.  "  Whose  Sins  you  shall  Forgive,  they  are  For- 
given Them"— The  Profession  of  Faith  by 

Thomas, 739 

VI.  Jesus  Appears  to  Seven  Apostles  at  the  Sea  of 

Tiberias— The  Primacy  of  Peter,       .        .        .743 
VII.  Jesus  Appears  to  a  great  Multitude  on  a  Moun- 
tain in  Galilee — Apparition  to  St.  James — The 
Commission  of  the  Teaching  Church,      .        .751 
VIII.  Jesus  Ascends  into  Heaven,        ....    754 
IX.  The  Election  of  Matthias— The  Descent  of  the 
Holy   Ghost— The    First    Preaching    of   the 
Apostles,    .        .        ....        .        .        .760 


EPILOGUE. 

JESUS  CHRIST  IS  GOD. 

"Ye  shall  be  as  Gods," •  .        i 

"  Lo,  this  is  our  God :  We  have  waited  for  Him ! "         .  .     vii 

"  My  Lord  and  my  God!" x 

"I  am  the  Light  of  the  World," xiv 

"  I  know  Mine  and  Mine  know  Me  "  ,    adx 


INTRODUCTION. 


Our  Saviour's  People  and  Country. 


PALESTINE  AND  THE  CHILDREN  OF  ISRAEL. 

PALESTINE,  primi- 
tively known  as  Cha- 
naan,  then  Israel  and 
Judea,  is  for  the  most 
part  an  extended  and 
picturesque  valley 
considerably  elevated 
above  sea  level.  Em- 
bosomed between  two 

mountain  chains,  it  is  traversed  from  end  to 
end  by  a  single  water- course,  the  far-famed 
river  Jordan,  which,  rising  at  the  foot  of 
Mount  Hermon,  flows  directly  south,  broad- 
ening in  its  northerly  portion  into  the  charm- 
ing Lake  of  Genesareth  (otherwise  called  the  Sea  of 
Tiberias),  and  ending  in  the  bitter  waters  of  the 
Dead  Sea.  Between  these  two  lakes  the  river  flows  in 
many  turns,  over  shifting  sands  and  among  reeds  and 
weeds,  as  if  sadly  conscious  of  bearing  its  bright 
waters  to  the  cauldron  of  death,  falling  into  the  Dead 
Sea  as  if  it  were  its  grave.  It  is  in  reality  the 
grave  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrha,  once  flourishing  cities 
whose  destruction  seems  still  to  be  commemorated  by 


2  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

bubbles  of  poisonous  gas  rising  to  the  surface  like 
the  belchings  of  the  volcanic  giant  after  his  feast. 

Chosen  from  the  beginning  as  the  scene  of  God's 
sojourn  among  men,  Palestine  is  the  meeting-point 
of  the  three  grand  divisions  of  the  ancient  world, 
Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  It  is  the  geographical 
centre,  as  it  was  destined  to  become  the  religious 
heart  of  ancient  civilization.  Upon  the  banks  of  its 
holy  river  and  its  lakes,  and  over  its  plains  and  hill- 
sides, dwelt  in  our  Saviour's  time  a  little  nation  highly 
favored  by  God.  It  was  indeed  broken  and  conquered, 
but  it  still  stood  erect  clasping  to  its  bosom  the  sacred 
deposit  of  divine  truth  confided  to  its  ancestors  many 
ages  before.  At  the  coming  of  Christ  Israel  was 
reduced  to  a  population  of  not  more  than  three  or 
four  millions,  its  former  military  glory,  together  with 
political  independence,  departed  for  ever.  Yet  in  the 
whole  wide  world  it  alone  preserved  the  knowledge 
of  the  true  God,  one,  infinite,  eternal,  the  Creator 
and  Judge  of  men.  It  was,  withal,  a  race  of  hard 
heart  and  stiff  neck,  but  yet  the  only  one  which  had 
the  law  of  God.  This  was  written  upon  the  pages 
of  the  national  constitution  and  graven  upon  the  living 
tablets  of  the  people's  hearts.  Among  all  other  nations 
the  idea  of  God  was  almost  wholly  effaced  from  men's 
souls,  or  rather  every  forceful  man  was  worshipped 
as  God,  every  portentous  element  of  nature,  every 
good  and  evil  passion.  Outside  of  Palestine  everything 
was  God  except  the  true  God. 

This  elect  race  was  descended  from  Abraham  the 
patriarch  through  his  son  Isaac  and  his  grandson 
Jacob,  or  Israel.  To  each  of  these  three,  during  the 
adventurous  wanderings  which  made  up  their  lives, 
God  had  repeatedly  promised  this  land  as  the  peculiar 
possession  of  their  posterity.  They,  descendants  of 


PALESTINE  AND  THE  CHILDREN  OF  ISRAEL. 


the  twelve  sons  of  Jacob,  were  led  to  it  by  their 
great  lawgiver,  Moses,  after  suffering  a  very  long  cap- 
tivity in  Egypt.  During  their  journey  across  the 
desert  of  Arabia  the  children  of  Israel  were  favored  by 
the  divine  interposition  in  most  miraculous  ways,  until 
they  were  securely  settled  in  this  land  of  promise. 
It  was  "a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,"  but 
its  fruitfulness  was  conditioned  upon  the  people's  fidelity 
to  God,  for  naturally  it  is  subject  to  frequent  visita- 
tions of  drought.  While  the  Israelites  were  true  to 
God  the  soil  was  fruitful,  and  when  they  turned  to 
false  gods  the  hot  wind  of  the  desert  blasted  their 
fields  and  pastures.  It  was  the  divine  purpose  to  com- 
pel the  Jews  to  keep  alive  the  fire  of  His  true 
worship  as  in  a  carefully  guarded  sanctuary,  until 
in  the  fulness  of  time  it  should  be  brought  forth 
to  illumine  the  whole  world. 

The  location  was  well  chosen :  on  one  side  was 
the  sea-coast  almost  entirely 
without  good  harbors,  and  on 
the  other  frontiers  were  bleak 
deserts  or  rugged  mountains. 
The  Israelites  could  easily  hold 
their  own  against  the  neighbor- 
ing pagan  nations,  and  ever  did 
so  except  when  God  delivered 
them  into  the  hands  of  their 
enemies  in  punishment  of  their 
sins.  This  little  family  of  the 
Lord  by  His  special  providence 
in  their  location,  their  warlike 
ardor,  the  racial  and  social 
rules  of  the  law  of  Moses,  and 
the  constant  interference  of  His 
Strong  right  arm,  preserved  THE  WELLS  OF  MOSES, 


4  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

their  strikingly  peculiar  traits  of  character  and  per- 
petuated their  ancestral  traditions  of  the  true  religion. 
The  twelve  tribes  of  Israel  had  at  one  era  of  their 
history  become  a  powerful  nation,  whose  golden  age 
was  under  the  kingship  of  David  and  his  son  Solomon. 
Afterwards  it  was  broken  into  two  separate  and  usually 
antagonistic  kingdoms  :  that  of  Juda,  embracing  the 
tribe  of  that  name  and  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  whose 
capital  was  Jerusalem ;  and  that  of  Israel,  composed 
of  the  other  ten  tribes.  Many  most  important  political 
changes  afterwards  took  place,  chief  among  them  the 
long  captivity  of  nearly  the  entire  people  in  Babylon, 
the  domination  of  Alexander  the  Great  and  his  suc- 
cessors, and  the  wars  of  independence  under  the  Macha- 
bees.  Rome  had  conquered  the  country  some  sixty 
years  prior  to  the  birth  of  Christ,  at  which  date  it 
was  a  province  of  the  vast  empire  ruled  by  Caesar 
Augustus.  It  was  divided  into  four  parts  :  Jerusalem 
was  the  seat  of  government  for  the  whole  province, 
with  Judea  for  its  immediate  jurisdiction;  Samaria, 
lying  north  of  Judea,  was  another  legal  division ;  yet 
further  north  was  Galilee ;  the  nearer  region  beyond 
the  Jordan  was  called  the  Perea. 

JERUSALEM    AND  JUDEA. 

Jerusalem,  otherwise  called  Sion  (perhaps  the 
Salem  of  Melchisedech) ,  was  the  centre  of  the  Jewish 
religion.  Wherever  scattered,  the  hearts  of  the  people 
yearned  for  Sion,  the  City  of  God,  the  site  of  His 
holy  Temple.  Happy  the  day  when  the  weary  pilgrim 
entered  its  gate  to  offer  his  prayers  at  the  one  spot 
on  the  whole  earth  in  which  God  had  commanded 
sacrifice  to  be  offered  to  His  sovereign  majesty,  and 
where  He  most  lovingly  listened  to  the  prayers  of  His 
people — happier  still  the  Jew  who  always  dwelt  in  the 


JERUSALEM  AND  JUDEA.  $ 

sacred  atmosphere  of  the  Holy  City.  Every  earnest 
Israelite  trusted  most  firmly  that  this  city  was  in  God's 
own  time,  now  close  at  hand,  to  fulfil  the  forebodings 
of  the  Roman  soothsayers  and  conquer  the  world. 
Few  of  them,  however,  were  willing  to  believe  that 
this  conquest  would  not  be  one  of  violence,  but  rather 
(according  to  the  meaning  of  the  city's  name,  the  City 
of  Peace)  a  moral  and  religious  revolution  as  meek  as 
it  would  be  irresistible. 

The  city  was  divided  into  three  parts,  or  rather  three 
hills :  to  the  west  and  south  Mount  Sion ;  to  the  east 
Mount  Moriah,  crowned  by  the  Temple  ;  and  the  north- 
ern and  most  inhabited  section,  called  Acra.  The 
place  was  strongly  fortified,  being  surrounded  by 
frowning  walls  overlooking,  in  most  parts,  deep  ravines, 
and  garnished  with  beetling  towers.  At  the  time  of 
Christ  there  were  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  resi- 
dents, a  population  enormously  increased  at  various 
seasons  by  the  great  throngs  of  Jewish  pilgrims  from 
all  over  the  world,  drawn  by  the 
festivals  of  their  religion. 

Although  its  ancient  glory  had 
departed,  Jerusalem  was  a  great 
and  splendid  city.  Among  its 
gorgeous  palaces  was  that  of 
King  Herod  the  Great,  standing 
on  the  northern  slope  of  Mount 
Sion  and  adorned  with  a  profusion 
of  silver  and  gold  and  costly 
marbles.  At  the  northern  border 
was  the  magnificent  tower  called 
Antonia,  once  the  abode  of  the 
heroic  Machabees.  It  was  now 
the  fortress  of  the  Roman  garrison 
and  dominated  the  whole  city. 


THE  GA-TE  OF  THE  HOLY  CITY, 


LAMPS  IN  THE  TEMPLE. 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

In  it  the  governor  of  the  coun- 
try was  like  the  prison  physi- 
cian holding  the  pulse  of  the 
criminal  under  torture  and 
watching  the  limits  of  his  en- 
durance. But  palaces  and  for- 
tresses and  governors  and  sol- 
diers could  not  take  from  Jeru- 
salem its  true  character :  it  was 
the  Holy  City.  Everything 
gave  place  to  religion,  not  only 
in  the  general  seeming  of  things 
but  in  the  souls  of  the  citizens 
and  the  multitudes  of  pilgrims. 
Jerusalem  was  crowned  by  the  Temple  of  Jehovah, 
arid  Jehovah  was  uppermost  in  the  thoughts  and 
affections  of  the  people,  however  wildly  and  even 
erroneously  directed.  Although  the  people  of 
Israel  were  politically  enslaved,  yet  experience 
had  shown  even  the  resistless  Romans  how  dan- 
gerous it  was  to  tamper  with  their  faith.  An 
insult  to  the  house  of  God  or  to  the  venerable 
rites  of  His  worship  transformed  them  into  a 
nation  of  martyrs. 
The  Temple — to  the  Jews  the  point  of  union  between 
earth  and  heaven — was,  says  Josephus,  of  such  dazzling 
beauty  that  from  a  distance  it  looked  like  a  mass  of 
snow  sparkling  in  the  sunlight.  It  was  built  of  marble, 
and  its  interior  was  overlaid  with  plates  of  gold.  The 
exterior  was  enclosed  by  a  majestic  colonnade  forming 
the  outer  court,  that  of  the  Gentile  converts ;  a  railing 
bearing  Latin  and  Greek  inscriptions  barred  their  en- 
trance to  a  second  and  more  elevated  court,  in  which 
worshipped  the  children  of  Abraham,  the  women  being 
railed  off  from  the  more  honorable  place  of  the  men. 


JERUSALEM  AND  JUDEA.  7 

Within  this  again,  and  raised  still  higher,  was  a  court 
reserved  exclusively  for  the  priests  and  Levites,  and 
sacred  to  the  celebration  of  the  sacrifices.  Finally, 
there  was  the  very  sanctuary  of  the  Temple,  the  Holy 
of  Holies,  quite  hidden  by  the  sacred  veil,  and  whose 
precincts  were  trodden  by  the  High-Priest  alone. 

To  the  north  and  east  of  the  capital  were  many 
memorials  of  Israel's  glory ;  Jericho,  which  had  fallen 
at  the  sound  of  the  L,evitesJ  trumpets,  now  embowered 
in  palm-trees  and  roses ;  many  ancient  battle-fields  of 
the  long  Philistine  wars — the  scenes  of  Samson's  vic- 
tories, of  David's  conquest  of  Goliath,  of  the  call  of  the 
father  of  the  Machabees  to  the  last  successful  war  of 
liberation,  and  the  final  era  of  Israel's  national  inde- 
pendence. To  the  south  was  Bethlehem  and  the  tomb 
of  Rachel,  and  the  field  of  Booz,  in 
which  Ruth,  our  Saviour's  ancestress, 
had  gleaned  after  the  reapers  and  won 
her  husband.  But  greater  than  all  was 
Bethlehem  itself.  It  was  the  city  of 
David,  and  was  foretold  by  Amos  and 
other  prophets  as  the  birthplace  of  the 
promised  Messias  so  often  spoken  of 
and  saluted  by  the  patriarchs,  whose 
sacred  ashes  reposed  in  their  rocky 
cells  at  Hebron,  not  far  to  the  south- 
ward. Upon  Bethlehem  the  eyes  of 
all  Israel  were  often  turned  in  expec- 
tation of  their  Redeemer. 

An  austere  sect  called  Essenes  lived 
in  a  kind  of  community  life  near  the 
Dead  Sea.  They  renounced  marriage, 
mortified  the  flesh  with  extreme  sever- 
ity, and  practised  every  hardship  known 
to  the  ascetics.  But  they  were,  it  seems,  ««.«.«, 


8  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

fatally  tainted  with  oriental  dualism,  making  evil  a 
principle  independent  of  good  and  identifying  it  with 
all  material  and  physical  existence ;  hence  their  as- 
ceticism. They  differed  in  this  from  the  Jewish  Naza- 
rites,  who  renounced  all  things  from  the  truest  motives 
and  had  ever  been  the  mainstay  of  orthodox  Judaism. 

THE  PEREA  AND  THE  TRANSJORDAN. 

Across  the  Jordan,  the  country  stretching  away 
east  and  north  almost  to  the  gates  of  Damascus  was 
only  in  part  a  division  of  the  Holy  Land.  It  was 
roamed  over  by  wild  and  scattered  tribes,  forefathers 
of  the  freebooting  Bedouins  of  our  own  times,  who 
had  no  share  in  the  religious  convulsions  which  we 
are  going  to  narrate.  To  the  Jews  these  people  were 
like  a  thorny  wilderness  enclosing  a  fruitful  vine- 
yard. Exception,  however,  must  be  made  in  favor 
of  the  region  just  east  of  the  river  lying  between 
the  Lake  of  Genesareth  and  the  Dead  Sea,  and  called 
the  Perea.  In  spite  of  a  sprinkling  of  pagans,  its  in- 
habitants were  Israelites,  fervent  in  their  observance 
of  the  law  of  Moses.  Their  country  was  the  land  of 
Galaad,  the  native  land  of  mighty  EHas  the  Thesbite. 

Through  the  mountain  pass- 
es of  the  Perea  the  twelve 
tribes  had  come  out  of  the 
desert  to  the  banks  of  the 
- _~^  Jordan,  and  it  had  been  as- 
^4^'  signed  to  the  tribes  of  Reuben 
and  Gad  as  their  portion  of 
Israel's  heritage — a  stalwart 
people,  ever  ready  to  change 
the  shepherd's  crook  for  the 
Bedouin's  lance  in  defence 
of  the  nation  or  of  its  God 


GATE  OF  DAMASCUS. 


THE  PEREA,  TRANSJORDAN,  AND  SAMARIA.          9 

Jehovah.     There,   too,  in  Mount  Phogor,  the  heathen 
Balaam,  having  come  out  to  curse  the  hosts  of  Israel, 
was  forced  by  the  Lord  to  bless  them.     Mount  Nebo, 
also,  was  there,  from  whose    summit    Moses   had   re- 
joiced in  the  blessed  sight  of  the   Land  of  Promise, 
and  seemed  still  to  watch  over  the  peo- 
ple of    God   and  to   renew  the  prophecy 
of  a  Saviour. 

SAMARIA. 

West  of  the  Jordan,  and  bounded 
north  and  south  by  Galilee  and  Judea, 
was  a  little  country  called  Samaria.  Its 
people  professed  the  Mosaic  law,  but 
were  completely  severed  from  the  Jews, 
who  hated  them  worse  than  swine-flesh 

and  rated   them  lower  than  the  heathen.  BEDOUIN  SHEPHERD 

They  were  of  mingled  Hebrew  and  pagan  blood,  being 
remnants  of  the  original  Israelites  of  the  region  who 
escaped  the  Babylonian  captivity,  but  who  were  ab- 
sorbed into  Assyrian  colonies  planted  among  the  hills 
of  Bphraim.  The  Samaritans  gave  back  hate  for 
hate.  Masters  of  the  best  route  from  Galilee  to 
Jerusalem,  they  molested  the  pilgrims  on  their  jour- 
neys to  and  from  the  Holy  City,  often  forcing  them 
to  take  the  roundabout  way  beyond  the  Jordan. 
Secretly  they  penetrated  into  the  Temple  and  pol- 
luted the  holy  places ;  they  had  a  rival  temple  on 
Mount  Garizim,  in  which  ministered  a  schismatical 
priesthood.  They  rejected  many  books  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures,  holding  only  to  the  Pentateuch,  of  which 
they  claimed  to  have  the  only  genuine  version.  Mon-. 
grel  in  race,  they  were  also  mixed  in  religion ;  for 
if  they  adored  Jehovah,  they  also  honored  the  pagan 
gods — midway,  as  our  Saviour  placed  them,  between 


TOWER  OF  BETHEL. 


10  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

the  Jews  and  the  heathen,  saying  to  His  Apostles : 
"  You  shall  be  witnesses  of  Me  in  Jerusalem  and 
Judea,  in  Samaria,  and  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth." 

Their  chief  city  was  Sichem,  placed  between 
Mounts  Garizim  and  Ebal.  Everywhere  Samaria  was 
sanctified  by  holy  memories.  Near  Sichem,  Abraham 
had  sojourned;  close  at  hand  was  Jacob's  well; 
Josue  had  died  in  this  vicinity,  leaving  to  his  peo- 
ple his  wonderful  testament.  A  little  to  the  north 
of  Sichem  was  the  city  of  Samaria,  in  later  times 
called  Sebaste,  and  rebuilt  and  beautified 
by  Herod  the  Great ;  it  had  been  in 
earlier  ages  the  capital  of  the  wicked 
race  of  Israel's  kings.  From  their  north- 
ern border  the  Samaritans  looked  across 
the  plain  of  Esdrelon  and  beheld  the 
lofty  cliffs  of  Carmel,  the  place  of  prayer 
for  great  EHas.  Near  their  southern 
limit  was  Siloh,  where  the  Ark  of  the 
Covenant  had  so  long  been  deposited  ; 
and  near  by  was  Bethel,  where  Jacob 
had  his  vision  of  the  heavenly  ladder 
and  had  wrestled  with  the  angel. 

GALILEE. 

North  of  Samaria  lay  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles,  so 
called  from  its  occupancy  during  many  generations 
by  pagan  communities,  only  partially  driven  out  by 
the  Machabees.  It  embraced  the  ancient  territory  of 
the  tribes  of  Issachar,  Zabulon,  Aser,  and  Nephtali. 
.In  its  interior  districts  the  population  was  genuinely 
Hebrew,  but  its  capital,  the  city  of  Tiberias,  on  the 
shore  of  L,ake  Genesareth,  was  Gentile  in  race  and 
religion  and  Greek  in  life  and  manners ;  the  same 


GALILEE.  ii 

may  be  said  of  some  other  scattered  communities. 
But  the  country  people  and  the  dwellers  in  many  of 
the  smaller  cities  were  full-blood  descendants  of  Abra- 
ham. Yet  their  brethren  in  Judea  looked  upon  the 
Galileans  almost  as  half-caste,  ridiculed  their  barbar- 
ous accent  and  their  rustic  manners,  and  at  best 
patronized  them  as  rough  country  cousins.  Neverthe- 
less, they  were  loyal  children  of  Israel  and  a  sturdy, 
handsome  race  besides.  They  were  faithful  to  God 
and  to  their  national  traditions,  brave  in  battle,  in- 
dustrious and  thrifty  in  time  of  peace.  Their  land, 
everywhere  beautiful,  was  mostly  fertile,  though  the 
northern  part  was  broken  by  wooded  hills  and  ravines, 
often  the  refuge  of  bandits  and  sometimes  of  insur- 
gents. About  the  Lake  of  Genesareth  Galilee  was 
like  a  beautiful  garden,  the  climate  favoring  all  the 
products  of  the  temperate,  and  many  of  the  tropical 
zone,  amid  the  most  radiant  beauty  of  landscape  and 
under  a  genial  sky  ;  answering  the  prophetic  blessings 
of  Moses  upon  its  early  Hebrew  owners,  the  tribes  of 
Aser  and  Zabulon.  The  high  road  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean to  Damascus  and  inner  Syria  passed  across 
Galilee  and  around  the  north  end  of  Lake  Genesareth, 
taking  in  Tiberias  and  Capharnaum.  This  artery  of 
trade  was  of  no  small  benefit  to  the  Galileans  in  a 
material  point  of  view  and  increased  the  population 
of  their  country;  but  it  did  not  spoil  their  virtue. 

Nothing  could  spoil  this  strong  race,  in  which  both 
patriotism  and  religion  sprang  into  active  life  from 
the  same  deep-planted  root — love  of  the  law  of  Moses. 
Every  rood  of  ground  furnished  heroic  memories  to 
nourish  these  noble  sentiments.  The  Plain  of  Esdre- 
lon  told  of  Gedeon's  battle  with  the  Madianites,  of 
Saul's  victory  over  the  Philistines,  of  Achab's  over 
the  Syrians ;  every  hill  and  valley  and  stream  of  Gali- 


12  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

lee  was  sanctified  as  a  memorial  of  some  achieve- 
ment of  the  heroes  of  old  for  God  and  country.  The 
valor  of  the  stalwart  tillers  of  this  holy  soil  is  wit- 
nessed not  only  by  Josephus  but  by  the  Roman  annal- 
ist Tacitus  ;  a  warlike  quality  too  often  led  astray 
into  foolhardy  and  disastrous  insurrections. 

The  Messias  chose  this  portion  of  the  people  of 
Israel  as  his  kinsfolk,  for  they  were  the  best  type  of 
Israelites.  They  were  free  from  the  morbid  scrupulos- 
ity of  the  Pharisees  as  well  as  from  the  pagan  im- 
morality and  scepticism  which  stained  the  Sadducees. 
They  assembled  every  Sabbath  in  their  synagogues 
and  listened  reverently  to  their  Rabbis  expounding 
the  religion  of  their  forefathers,  to  which  they  were 
enthusiastically  devoted.  Into  the  gates  of  the  Holy 
City  their  dusty  caravans  were  seen  passing  at  every 
great  festival  time.  Meanwhile  their  contact  with  the 
Gentiles,  if  it  had  not  corrupted  their  manly  nature 
and  primitive  morality,  had  yet  helped  them  to  a 
broader  view  of  religious  questions,  and  they  were 
less  fanatical  in  the  observance  of  petty  details  of  re- 
ligious practice  than  the  greater  part  of  their  brother 
Israelites. 

THE   PHARISEES   AND   SADDUCEES. 

Among  all  the  people  of  Israel  the  opening  of  the 
Christian  era  was  an  epoch  of  reviving  religious  fervor 
and  patriotic  sentiment.  In  the  family  circle  as  well 
as  in  synagogues,  on  the  streets  and  in  the  fields 
and  workshops,  the  common  topic  was  a  mingled 
praise  of  the  law  of  Moses  and  lamentation  over  the 
enslavement  of  the  nation.  Unfortunately,  this  move- 
ment of  minds  was  not  well  directed ;  it  fell  under 
control  of  a  powerful  school  of  rigorists  called  Phari- 
sees. These  obtained  a  mastery  over  the  people  by 


THE  PHARISEES  AND  SADDUCEES. 


their  zeal  for  God  and  country,  but  moved  them 
rather  to  a  minute  observance  of  the  external  pre- 
scriptions of  the  law  than  to  a  more  reasonable  cul- 
tivation of  its  spirit  They  enforced  a  whole  system 
of  religious  practices  as  tests  of  orthodoxy,  many  of 
them  the  mere  inventions  of  an  ingenious  ritualism, 
others  extravagant  interpretations  of  the  Mosaic  forms. 
They  assumed  to  be  spokesmen  of  the  Deity  and 
final  judges  of  all  questions  of  the  Jewish  religion. 
They  crushed  out  all  liberty  of  spirit  by  their  author- 
ity, which  was  as  imperious  as  their  rulings  were 
subtle  and  narrow.  To  them,  however,  and  to  their 
associates  the  Scribes — learned  copyists  and  expositors 
of  the  Scriptures — the  people  reverently  looked  for 
guidance.  They  were  the  only  leaders  who  believed 
in  God  and  His  law ;  yet  they  who  looked  to  them  for 
the  bread  of  life  were  too  often  fed  with  husks  of 
ritualism.  Fasts  were  imposed  wholly  without  warrant 
in  the  law,  postures  at  prayer,  ablutions,  religious 
amulets,  exorbitant  tithes — a  whole  network  of  painful 
duties  binding  as  strictly  as  the 
Decalogue,  too  complex  to  be 
even  easily  learned  and  impossi- 
ble of  fulfilment.  This  it  was 
that  produced  the  condition  of  cen- 
soriousness  and  hypocrisy  which 
we  shall  find  our  Saviour  so  often 
condemning. 

As  might  be  expected,  a  vio- 
lent revolt  against  this  enslave- 
ment of  the  religious  spirit  pro- 
duced a  class  precisely  the  re- 
verse of  the  Pharisees.  The  Sad- 
ducees  threw  off  not  merely  the 
innovations  of  the  Pharisees,  but 


14  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

even  the  valid  observances  of  the  Mosaic  law. 
They  scoffed,  too,  at  the  separatist  principles  of 
the  Pharisees,  mingled  freely  with  pagans  and  fol- 
lowed their  manner  of  living,  frequenting  even  their 
lascivious  public  shows.  They  lived  an  easy  life ; 
they  sought  an  easy  way  of  deciding  religious  ques- 
tions. They  very  commonly  denied  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  and  the  reality  of  a  wrorld  of  spirits,  pro- 
fessing to  believe  in  the  Deity  only,  and  that  in 
the  vaguest  terms  possible.  Politically  they  were 
the  willing  tools  of  the  Romans,  and  of  Herod  the 
Great  and  his  sons.  They  were  not  popular  with 
the  masses  of  the  people,  who  always  love  and  follow 
fervent  spirits.  The  Sadducees  were  comparatively 
few  in  number,  and  were  of  the  richer  class,  having 
fattened  on  the  favor  of  the  public  authorities. 

THE  SYNAGOGUES  AND  THE  SANHEDRIN. 

Every  Jewish  community  throughout  the  land  had 
at  least  one  synagogue,  which  was  the  usual  place 
of  public  worship  and  Scripture  exposition.  Each 
synagogue  was  governed  by  a  body  of 
elders,  a  chief  or  ruler,  a  master  of  cere- 
monies and  a  head  usher,  and  these  sent 
their  representatives  to  the  Sanhedrin. 
Of  this  body,  formerly  so  powerful,  the 
High-Priest  was  president.  It  had  seven- 
ty-one members,  made  up  of  the  Chief 
Priests  or  heads  of  the  sacerdotal  classes, 
together  with  delegates  from  the  elders 
of  the  synagogues  and  representatives 
from  the  college  or  association  of  the 
Scribes.  All  that  survived  of  national 
dignity  in  Israel  was  represented  by  the 
A  PHARISEE.  Sanhedrin,  once  in  plenary  possession 


THE  ROMAN  PO  WER  IN  PALESTINE.  1 5 

of  the  executive  and  judicial  authority  over  the 
nation.  By  its  own  connivance  and  consent  the 
Romans  had  nullified  its  authority  and  even  usurped 
its  functions. 

THE   ROMAN   POWER   IN   PALESTINE. 

About  two  generations  before  the  birth  of  Christ  the 
Roman  general  Pompey  had  captured  Jerusalem,  slain 
the  priests,  profaned  the  Holy  of  Holies,  appointed 
his  creature  Hyrcanus  ethnarch,  and  made  the  coun- 
try part  of  the  Roman  province  of  Syria.  Under 
Julius  Caesar,  Herod,  surnamed  the  Great,  a  Gentile 
of  Jewish  faith,  was  appointed  tetrarch  of  Judea,  and 
by  Antony  and  Octavius  was  made  king,  in  vassalage, 
of  course,  to  Rome.  He  is  one  of  the  most  cruel 
monsters  known  to  history,  or  even  fable.  Among 
his  undoubted  crimes  are  unheard-of  oppression  and 
massacre  of  the  people,  murder  of  his  nearest  kindred, 
and  obtrusion  of  his  creatures  into  the  Sanhedrin 
and  high-priesthood.  His  usurpation  was  perfect  as 
far  as  suppression  of  Jewish  liberty  was  concerned, 
while  he  in  turn  was  most  slavishly  subservient  to 
Rome.  Upon  his  death,  which  happened  shortly 
after  our  Saviour's  birth,  Rome  divided  his  kingdom 
among  his  sons :  Archelaus  was  made  eth- 
narch of  Judea,  Herod  Antipas  tetrarch  of 
Galilee  and  the  Perea,  Herod 
Philip  tetrarch  of  Batanea  and 
Trachonitis — the  region  lying  to 
the  north  of  Lake  Genesareth — 
all  strictly  subject  to  Rome. 
Archelaus  was  deposed  in  the 
tenth  year  of  his  reign  and  his 
territory  annexed  to  the  Roman 
LAMP  USED  IN  SYNAGOGUE,  province  of  Syria.  Herod  Philip 


16  LIFE  OP  JESUS  CHRIST. 

was  generally  a  good  ruler ;  lie  survived  our  Lord's 
mission  only  a  few  years.  Herod  Antipas  was  cruel, 
impious,  and  licentious ;  he  is  the  Herod  who  mur- 
dered John  the  Baptist,  and  to  whom  Pontius  Pilate 
sent  our  Saviour  on  Good  Friday.  He  was  finally 
deposed  by  the  Hmperor  Caligula  and  died  in  exile. 

These  were  some  of  the  steps  of  the  Roman  colossus 
towards  the  entire  extinction  of  Jewish  independence 
and  liberty.  Another  and  a  notable  one  was  the 
imperial  census  taken  at  our  Saviour's  birth  under 
"Coponius,  Sulpitius  Quirinus  being  proconsul  of  all 
Syria.  Two  insurrections  followed,  and  then  the  coun- 
try was  more  closely  incorporated  into  the  empire. 
A  temporary  relief  was  felt  under  the  procurators 
Ambivius,  Anius  Rufus,  and  Valerius,  who  ruled 
with  moderation.  But  under  their  successor,  Pontius 
Pilate,  who  was  appointed  about  five  years  prior  to 
our  Saviour's  public  ministry,  the  Jewish  people 
were  made  subject  to  the  Roman  officials  in  every 
detail  of  government.  The  Roman  procurator  was 
master  of  life  and  death,  being  the  chief  judicial  as 
well  as  administrative  officer  in  the  land.  He  was 
backed  by  a  full  military  equipment,  the  Roman 
legions  having  detachments  in  every  strong  place  and 
a  large  garrison  not  only  at  the  official  capital,  Csesa- 
rea  on  the  Mediterranean,  but  also  in  Jerusalem. 
Roman  tax-collectors  were  at  the  gates  of  every  town, 
and  the  tribute  was  rigorously  exacted.  In  the 
heart's  core  of  the  venerable  theocracy,  the  Holy  City 
itself,  the  foreign  domination  was  centred,  supervising 
and  completing  the  political  disintegration  of  Israel. 

The  idolatrous  Roman  procurator  could  at  his 
caprice  interfere  with  the  divine  sacrificial  worship 
of  the  Temple,  and  he  did  not  fail  to  do  so,  using 
the  priesthood  as  an  instrument  for  the  people's  sub- 


THE  ROMAN  PO  WER  IN  PALESTINE.  17 

jection.  The  deep  religious  sentiment  of  the  Jews, 
ingrained  by  racial  tradition,  by  education,  by  the 
sincerest  personal  conviction,  made  the  doctrine  and 
the  worship  of  the  Temple  the  supreme  power  of 
the  nation,  and  the  Romans  knew  we|l  that  they 
must  secure  the  leaders  of  the  priesthood  L  they 
would  maintain  their  supremacy.  Therefore,  four-  "^ 
teen  years  after  our  Saviour  was  born,  the  Roman 
governor,  Valerius  Gratus,  intruded  a  spurious  High- 
Priest  into  the  Temple  in  place  of  Annas,  the  legitimate 
one.  Withdn  four  years  two  others  were  successively 
intruded,  until,  in  spite  of  all  protests  of  the  people, 
one  was  found  base  enough  to  hold  the  place  under 
Roman  favor  for  nineteen  years — Joseph  Caiphas ; 
though,  for  all  true  Hebrews,  Annas  remain- 
ed the  only  lawful  incumbent.  We  shall  find 
St.  Luke  naming  both  of  them  as  High- 
Priests,  one  being  such  by  divine  right,  the 
other  by  the  Roman  usurpation.  They 
managed  cunningly  to  work  together,  An- 
nas being  father-in-law  of  Caiphas. 

It  was  when  our  Lord  began  to  preach 
that  this  lowest  depth  of  degradation  had 
been  reached  :  three  rulers  in  the  politi- 
cal order,  Pilate  governing  Judea,  with 
his  headquarters  in  Jerusalem ;  the  two 
Herods,  Antipas  and  Philip,  both  slaves 
of  Rome,  having  nominal  authority  over  the  rest  of 
Palestine ;  in  the  religious  order  two 
High-Priests,  one  real  and  secret,  the 
other  open  and  spurious.  Could  a 
worse  condition  of  things  be  imag- 
ined ?  And  what  was  the  hope  of 
Israel  ?  It  was  the  promised  Messias. 

HEAD-PIECES  OF 
JEWISH  PRIESTS. 


TYPES  OF 
JEWISH 

PRIES.TS. 


i8  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHh/ST. 

THE   HOPE   OF  ISRAEL. 

Daily  the  faithful  Hebrew,  in  his  family  devotions, 
prayed  for  the  coming  of  his  Saviour.  In  the  public 
ceremonies  of  religion  the  sublime  tones  of  the  Mosaic 
liturgy  eloquently  chanted  God's  promise  of  a  Re- 
deemer. Hence  the  strained  look  for  His  advent, 
especially  at  the  opening  of  the  Christian  era,  when 
the  prophetic  seventy  weeks  of  years  were  nearly  com- 
pleted. "Art  thou  He  that  is  to  come,  or  look  we 
for  another  ?  ' '  demanded  the  High-Priests  of  John 
the  Baptist.  Israel  never  ceased  to  hope.  Whether 
groaning  under  persecutions  or  even  scandalized  by 
apostate  High-Priests,  the  voice  of  the  prophets, 
the  last  of  whom  was  dead  four  hundred  years,  still 
echoed  in  the  souls  of  the  chosen  people,  still  was 
implicitly  believed,  telling  of  the  coming  of  the  Saviour, 
the  Desired  of  Nations,  the  Seed  of  the  Woman,  the 
Fruit  of  the  Virgin's  womb,  the  Lawgiver  superior  to 
Moses,  the  Child-God  of  the  House  of  David. 
Whether  wailing  out  his  prayers  in  the  Temple,  or 
tearfully  explaining  the  sacred  promise  to  his  children, 
or  writhing  beneath  the  heel  of  the  Roman  soldier,  or 
wildly  shouting  defiance  against  the  pagan  stranger  in 
bloody  revolt,  the  true  Israelite  always  trusted  in  the 
coming  of  his  Messias.  The  people  of  God  were  about 
to  be  rewarded  for  having  cherished  this  Grace  of 
Expectation. 


Lonirltuile       S3 


II. 

THE  WRITINGS   WHICH   TELL  OF  JESUS. 

ST.  PAUL'S  EPISTLES  AND  THE  ACTS  OF  THE 
APOSTLES. 


HE  first  writings  which  told  the  Church 
about  her  Founder  were  probably  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  Some  of  these,  it  is  believed,  an- 
tedate the  earliest  of  the  four  Gospels.  Throughout 
his  writings  St.  Paul  shows  perfect  familiarity  with  his 
Master,  whom  he  had  probably  seen  and  heard  in  the 
flesh,  and  to  whom  he  was  drawn,  after  his  conversion  at 
the  gate  of  Damascus,  into  an  intimate  spiritual  union, 
filled  with  special  revelations.  From  the  divine  pre- 
existence  of  Jesus  to  His  guidance  of  the  individual 
soul  by  His  Holy  Spirit,  every  principle  of  His  re- 
ligion and  many  of  the  details  of  His  life  are  narrated 
or  expounded  by  this  most  powerful  of  Christian 
teachers.  St.  Luke,  a  disciple  of  St.  Paul,  has  re- 
corded in  the  Book  of  the  Acts  the  earliest  public 
discourses  on  the  life  and  doctrine  of  Jesus,  namely, 
those  of  St.  Peter  and  others  of  the  disciples  in  the 
beginning  of  their  ministry.  These  are  brief  sum- 
maries of  the  career  of  our  Saviour,  from  His  con- 
nection with  the  old  Scriptures  as  the  fulfilment  of 
their  prophecies,  to  His  ascension  into  heaven  and 
sending  down  the  Holy  Ghost,  outlining  His  preach- 
ing, journeys,  miracles,  betrayal,  accusation,  trial, 
execution,  and  His  resurrection  from  the  dead.  These 
witness  the  all-pervading  knowledge  of  Christ  and  of 
His  mission  in  the  primitive  Church ;  but  they  are 
not  the  foremost  sources  of  the  Saviour's  Life.  Sur- 
passing all  other  evidence  is  the  Gospel,  the  Glad 


20  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Tidings,  consisting  of  the  four  narratives  of  Matthew, 
Mark,  I^uke,  and  John. 

THE   FOUR  GOSPELS. 

Brief  as  are  these  narratives,  their  power  over  the 
human  mind,  especially  when  read  by  seekers  after 
a  better  life,  is  a  wonderful  fact  in  literary  history. 
No  book  but  God's  book  could  so  master  the  upright 
heart  as  the  book  of  the  Gospels  has  always  done. 
In  language  which  is  a  medium  of  incomparable  clear- 
ness, facts  are  recited  and  rules  of  conduct  are  laid 
down  which  have  superseded  all  previous  moralizings 
and  philosophizings,  and  capped  with  supreme  beauty 
all  former  history.  Simplicity  is  their  foremost  literary 
attribute  ;  nay,  literary  defects  are  everywhere  found, 
lack  of  artistic  grouping,  fragmentary  jumbling  of 
occurrences  and  precepts,  memoranda  of  apparently 
chance  conversations;  yet  the  events  are  the  manifest 
power  of  God. 

But  Holy  Church,  divinely  guided,  could  alone  set- 
tle the  question  of  their  inspiration  and  authenticity. 

It  is  the  divine  and  human  character  of  Jesus 
Christ  living,  speaking,  organizing,  dying,  rising  and 
ascending  into  heaven,  that  is  shown  in  these  books. 
If  God  be  King  of  men,  He  is  King  in  the  king- 
dom of  books,  and  so  the  book  which  tells  of  the 
Son  of  God  may  well  be  God's.  This  explains 
the  tears  of  penitence  its  reading  brings  forth,  like 
the  touch  of  the  rod  of  Moses  on  the  rock  in  the 
desert ;  this  explains  the  ever-increasing  veneration  in 
which  the  Gospels  are  held  by  the  best  men  and 
women  in  all  ages.  This  power  of  the  Four  Gospels 
began  immediately  with  their  publication.  We  find 
them  unanimously  accepted  in  the  Church  as  the 
Word  of  God  as  early  as  any  extant  records  tell  of 


THE  FOUR  GOSJPELS. 


21 


the  Christian  people.  Roman  Africa  is  witnessed  for 
by  Tertullian ;  Alexandria  and  Egypt  by  Clement; 
Irenseus  received  them  from  Polycarp  and  witnesses 
for  Greece  and  Asia  Minor;  Justin  Martyr,  bred  and 
converted  in  Syria,  quotes  them  in  Rome;  all  citing 
them  as  irrefutable  witnesses  of  the  Christian  faith. 
The  Church  of  the  martyrs  could  not  be  wrong, 
all  wrong,  hopelessly  wrong,  in  a  matter 
of  such  vital  importance. 

Thus  the  peculiar  and  undeniable 
power  of  the  Gospels  over  men  generally 
is  illustrated  by  the  veneration  in  which 
they  were  held  in  the  heroic  age  of  our  re- 
ligion. But,  furthermore,  the  historical  and 
extrinsic  evidence  which  links  these  books  ANCIENT  BOOK  OF  THE  GOSPELS. 
to  the  writers  whose  names  they  bear  is  complete. 
Citations  from  them,  attributing  authorship  to  all  the 
Kvangelists  respectively,  are  found  in  several  Chris- 
tian writers  who  were  themselves  disciples  of  the 
Apostles,  such  as  Clement  of  Rome  and  Polycarp  of 
Smyrna.  About  the  3rear  115  Papias,  Bishop  of 
Hierapolis,  a  disciple  of  the  Apostles,  says  that 
"  Matthew  wrote  the  Saviour's  discourses  in  Hebrew, 
and  each  one  has  translated  his  text  as  best  he 
may.  As  to  Mark,  he  is  the  spokesman  of  Peter, 
and  has  carefully  written  down  whatever  his  memory 
retained."  If  we  had  more  than  a  small  fragment 
of  Papias,  we  should  doubtless  find  his  testimony  to 
Luke  and  John.  Oral  tradition  is  unbroken  in  its 
testimony  that  th>  present  Gospels  were  originally 
the  work  of  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John — a  form 
of  evidence  of  conclusive  force  where  the  authentica- 
tion of  a  document,  as  in  this  case,  is  essentially 
joined  to  living  faith,  and  in  an  organization  like 
the  Church  of  Christ  created  and  perpetuated  by  the 


22 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


living  word  of  preachers.  Christian  tradition,  both 
early  and  late,  is  universally  in  favor  of  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  Gospels,  as  well  as  of  their  inspiration. 
In  fact,  every  species  of  human  evidence  establishes 
the  Gospels  as  the  work  of  men  who  actually  saw 
and  heard  Jesus  Christ,  two  of  them,  Matthew  and 
John,  writing  what  they  personally  knew,  Mark  and 
Luke  what  was  imparted  to  them  by  other  Apostles. 
The  Great  Book  of  the  New  Law  is  not  the  fantas- 
tic imaginings  of  Eastern  mystics,  but  compilations  of 
exact  history. 

THE  GOSPEI,  OF  ST.   MATTHEW. 

Matthew  was  a  Galilean  employed  as  a  collector 
of  the  Roman  tax — a  publican.  He  was  a  full-blood 
Jew,  originally  named  Levi,  and  was  converted  by 
Christ  instantaneously,  being  called  from  his  toll-booth 
by  the  Master.  His  Gospel,  mainly  addressed  to  the 
Jews,  is  written  from  their  point  of  view  ;  his  Jesus 
is  the  Messias  of  the  law  and  the  prophets.  On  his 

opening  page  Matthew  af- 
firms and  proves  the  legal 
right  of  our  Saviour  to  the 
sceptre  of  King  David. 
The  Evangelist  centres  in 
his  Master  the  converging 
realization  of  God's  prom- 
ises of  a  Lawgiver  supe- 
rior to  Moses,  the  Saviour 
of  mankind  and  the  divine- 
ly accepted  Victim  of  their 
sins,  the  Judge  of  the 
world,  whose  second  com- 
ing would  finally  complete 
THE  CALLINO  OF  MATTHEW.  the  covenant.  Hi$  witness 


THE  GOSPELS  OF  ST.  MA  TTHEW  AND  ST.  MARK.  23 


to  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  the  founder 
and  organizer  of  a  new  and  visible, 
though  spiritual,  kingdom,  the  Christian 
Church,  is  especially  full. 

As  to  the  date  of  the  composition  of 
the  first  Gospel,  no  one  places  it  later 
than  thirty  years  after  our  L,ord's  Ascension,  nor  earlier 
than  twelve.  The  primitive  Church  believed  that  its 
original  language  was  Hebrew,  but  there  are  intrinsic 
evidences  which  have  led  many  to  suppose  that  it  was 
composed  in  Greek.  It  is  quite  probable  that  editions 
in  both  tongues  were  prepared  under  the  author's 
supervision  :  in  Hebrew  for  the  Jews  of  Palestine  and 
in  Greek  for  those  of  the  dispersion ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  numerous  colonies  of  the  Jewish  people  scattered 
among  the  Gentiles. 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.   MARK. 

As  to  the  Gospel  of  St.  Mark:  "When  Peter 
preached  in  Rome,  under  the  influence  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,"  says  Clement  of  Alexandria,  "an- 
cient tradition  tells  us  that  his  hearers  in  great 
numbers  called  upon  Mark  to  commit  to  writing 
what  they  had  heard.  Mark  was  fully  possessed 
of  it  because  he  had  long  been  Peter's  disciple." 
And  Peter  approved  Mark's  Gospel  and  author- 
ized its  public  reading  in  the  assemblages  of  the 
faithful.  That  it  was  Peter's  teaching  was  the 
unanimous  belief  of  the  ancient  Church.  Writ- 
ten in  Rome,  and  primarily  for  the  Romans,  it 
was  inspired  to  suit  the  temper  of  the  imperial 
race,  bringing  out  the  personal  force  of  Jesus  and 
His  miraculous  powers.  It  is  Simon  Peter's  sim- 
ple plea  for  the  majesty  of  his  Master,  and  its  un- 
affected power  and  its  tone  of  deep  sincerity  make 


Fac-simile  of  tr 
oldest  extant  mam 
scripts  of  the  Go 
pels. 

The  first  is  fro 
the  codex  preserve 
in  the  Vatican  L 
brary.  It  is  a  r 
production  of  Mai 
xvi.  8. 

The  second 
from  the  codex  di 
covered  by  Tische 
dorf  in  1859  at  tl 
Convent  of  St.  C 
therine,  Mt.  Sin; 
It  is  St.  John  ii 

Note  the  corre 
tion  above  line 

Both  these  codic 
date  from  the  fii 
half  of  the  four 
century. 


THE  VICAR  OF  CHRIST. 


24  -  LIFE  OF  JESUS  ChRlST. 

it  the  most  vivid  narrative  of  the  four  Gospels,  though 
not  the  most  detailed  nor  the  mosi  profound.  John- 
Mark,  who  thus  served  Peter  in  preparing  it,  was 
a  disciple  of  Jesus,  or  almost  one,  when  yet  a  youth 
living  in  Jerusalem.  Peter  found  shelter  in  his 
mother's  house  when  released  from  prison  by  the 
Angel  (Acts  xii.  12).  He  was  with  Paul  and  Bar- 
nabas in  their  first  journey  into  Asia .  Minor,  and 
was  the  cause  of  their  separation  at  the  opening  oi 
the  second  journey  -(Acts  xv.  37).  He  finally  became 
Bishop  of  the  great  Church  of  Alexandria.  His 
Gospel,  as  appears  from  the  Latinisms  found  in  it 
and  from  other  evidence,  was  written  in  Rome,  in 
the  Greek  tongue,  about  the  same  time  as  that  of 
Matthew. 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.   LUKE. 

St.  Luke's  Gospel  dates  from  about  the  sixtieth 
year  after  our  Saviour's  birth.  Its  writer,  as  St.  Paul 
tells  us,  was  a  physician,  and  a  native  of  the  city 
of  Antioch,  He  was  bred  a  pagan,  and  after  his 
conversion  became  a  well- beloved  disciple  and  CO- 
ANCIENT  EPISTLE,  laborer  of  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  In  several 
ways  his  narrative  differs  from  the  other  three,  for 
he  is  neither  an  unlettered  man  nor  a-  Jew,  but  a 
'  Gentile  whose ;  style  o'f  :;writing  is  -correct  -and ;  even 
elegant,  and  whose  mind  demanded  a  great  complete- 
ness of  proof  before  yielding  religious  belief.  Yet 
his  Gospel  shows  him  as  full  of  the  Same  unreserved 
faith  as  the  other  Evangelists.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  he  wrote  under  the  supervision  of  St.  Paul,  and 
when  (II.  Tim.  iv.  n,  13)  the  Apostle  says,  "Only 
Luke  is  with  me.  .  .  .  When  thou  comest,  bring 
with  thee  ,  .  .  the  books,  especially  the  parch- 
ments.,." he  means  the  material  necessary  to  aid  his 


THE  THREE  SYNOPTICS  AND  THE  ORAL  GOSPEL.  25 

Evangelist  to  prepare  this  Gospel ;  to  which  he  after- 
wards refers  when  he  uses  the  phrase,  "according 
to  my  Gospel."  Luke  does  not  claim  more  than  the 
humble  office  of  chronicler,  addressing  his  narrative 
to  a  fictitious  person:  "Forasmuch  as  many  have 
taken  in  hand  to  set  forth  in  order  a  narration  of 
the  things  that  have  been  accomplished  among  us : 
according  as  they  have  delivered  them  unto  us,  who 
from  the  beginning  were  eye-witnesses  and  ministers 
of  the  word  :  it  seemed  good  to  me  also,  having 
diligently  attained  to  all  things  from  the  beginning, 
to  write  to  thee  in  order,  most  excellent  Theophilus, 
that  thou  mayest  know  the  verity  of  those  words  in 
which  thou  hast  been  instructed"  (Luke  i.  1—4). 

Luke's   purpose    was   a  consecutive   history,    based 
upon  the  oral  and  written  statements  of  eye-witnesses, 
of  the    life    and    mission    of  the    Saviour,    beginning 
with  His  family  and  origin  and  ending  with  His   as- 
cension.    Hence  he  exhibits  to  us  the  race  of  Jesus, 
His  birth,    childhood  and  home  life,  followed  by  His 
public    career,    death     and    resurrection ;    subsequent 
events,  namely,  the  perfect  organization  of  His  Church 
and  the  story  of  its  earliest  years  being  told  by  him 
in   that   wonderful   book,    the    Acts   of   the 
Apostles.      Thus     his     work     begins    with 
Zachary  and  the  Angel  Gabriel  in  the  Tem- 
ple   at    Jerusalem,    and    ends  with    the    en- 
thronement  of    the    Son   of    Mary    by    the 
Apostles  in  the  imperial  city  of  the  Caesars.         ANCIEOT BOOK3> PEN8>  m ^^ 

THE    THREE    SYNOPTICS    AND  THE   ORAL 
GOSPEL. 

The  Gospels  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke  are 
called  the  Synoptic,  that  is  to  say,  parallel  Gospels. 
This  is  because  they  are  much  alike  in  the  form  of 


26  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

their  narrative  and  the  choice  of  matter.  Of  the 
different  events  described,  forty-two  are  common  to 
all  three,  five  are  common  to  Mark  and  Luke, 
fourteen  to  Matthew  and  Luke,  only  seven  being 
Luke's  alone ;  but  these  are  mostly  of  surpassing 
importance.  Matthew  has  but  five  occurrences  in 
his  Gospel  which  are  not  in  the  other  two,  and 
M^k  only  two.  In  the  account  of  our  Saviour's 
sermons  the  parallelism  is  often  literal. 

Various  explanations  are  offered  to  account  for 
this  similarity  among  three  writers  whose  tastes  and 
personal  qualities  were  so  different,  and  whose  com- 
positions were  made  not  only  without  concert  but  under 
influences  quite  diverse  from  each  other.  The  most 
satisfactory  explanation  is  the  simplest  one.  It  is 
that  they  all  drew  from  one  and  the  same  source, 
namely,  the  oral  Gospel.  The  Synoptics  faithfully  put 
into  concise  but  complete  form  the  narrative  every- 
where passed  from  mouth  to  mouth  among  the  con- 
verts of  the  Apostles,  who  themselves  had  tacitly 
if  not  expressly  agreed  upon  a  history  of  the 
Saviour's  life  and  teaching  which  should  be  per- 
fectly uniform  in  its  general  features  while  admitting 
of  slight  verbal  variations.  From  the  very  beginning 
this  must,  in  some  cases,  have  been  put  into  frag- 
mentary notes  by  both  teachers  and  taught  for  pri- 
vate use. 

When  the  three  written  Gospels  were  officially 
promulgated,  the  devoutly  treasured  notes  and  memo- 
randa scattered  everywhere  through  the  Church  were 
superseded.  There  remained  the  Glad  Tidings  written 
by  inspired  hands ;  the  never-to-be-superseded  oral 
Gospel  meantime  remaining  embedded  in  the  foun- 
dations of  belief,  while  expressly  certified  by  the 
writings  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke.  It  is  to  the 


THE  THREE  SYNOPTICS  AND  THE  ORAL  GOSPEL.  27 

timid  attempts  of  other  narrators,  local  and  partial 
in  their  sphere,  that  St.  Luke  refers  when  he  says: 
"  Forasmuch  as  many  have  taken  in  hand  to  set 
forth  in  order  a  narration  of  the  .things  that  have 
been  accomplished  among  us," 

The  explanation,  therefore,  of  the  synoptical  char- 
acter of  the  Gospels  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke, 
both  as  to  resemblances  and  differences,  is  found  in 
the  single  oral  Gospel  of  which  these  Evangelists 
gave  three  written  versions.  The  oral  Gospel  had 
been  agreed  upon  by  the  Apostles  while  still  resident 
in-  Jerusalem,  in  which  city  St.  Matthew  put  it  in 
writing.  St.  Peter  preached  it  in  Antioch,  where, 
doubtless,  St.  Luke  first  learned  it ;  and  after  he  had 
become  a  disciple  of  St.  Paul  he  wrote  that  Apostle's 
version  of  it.  St.  Peter  bore  it  to  Rome  and  there 
dictated  it  to  his  disciple  St.  Mark. 

The  origin  of  the  Synoptical  Gospels,   thus  traced 
to  the  oral  Gospel,  accounts  for  the  striking  fact  that 
the  first  three  Evangelists  are  mainly  concerned  with 
the    Saviour's     discourses    and    miracles    in    Galilee, 
hardly  adverting  to  His  journeys  to  Jerusalem   until 
the  closing  scenes  of  His  life.     The  oral 
Gospel,  from  which  they  drew  their  mate- 
rial, dealt  with  the  simpler  principles  of 
faith  and   the   ordinary :  rules  of   conduct 
in  the  Christian's  life,  being  the  heritage 
of    the    common    masses   of    mankind; — 
thus  did  our  Saviour  teach  the  vast  crowds 
of  country  people  gathered  in  the  villages 
and  on  the  hill-sides  of  Galilee,  and  thus 
did    He   discourse   with    His   chosen    fol- 
lowers in  His  familiar  conversations.    The 
doctrine  is. indeed  sublime  in  the  highest 
degree,    but     not    so    mystical    and    tran-      PREACHING  CHRIST  IN  THE  TIME 

OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


28  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

scendent  as  that  promulgated  by  the  Master  in  the 
Holy  City.  Now,  the  lack  of  this  teaching  in  docu- 
mentary form  would  have  fatally  injured  our  Saviour's 
teaching  in  succeeding  generations.  Therefore  the 
Holy  Ghost  chose  St.  John,  "  the  disciple  whom  Jesus 
loved,"  to  supply  the  defect. 

THE   GOSPEL   OF   ST.  JOHN. 

Being  of  a  naturally  ardent  temperament,  this 
Apostle  and  his  brother  James  were  named  by  Jesus 
"  Sons  of  Thunder."  His  father 
and  mother,  Zebedee  and  Salome, 
gave  up  all  their  substance  as  well 
as  their  two  sons  to  the  Master's 
discipleship,  Salome  becoming  one 
of  the  great  women  of  the  Gospel. 
John  was  made  instinct  with  the 
loftiest  sentiments  of  which  humani- 
ty is  capable,  having  drank  them  in 
during  his  close  companionship  with 
Jesus,  and  afterwards  with  the  mo- 
ther of  Jesus,  to  whom  he  was  given 
as  adopted  son  and  protector.  With 

SALOME,    THE  MOTHER  OF  ST.   JOHN.  .  .      .          _  .  '   '- 

her  he  remained  in  Jerusalem  after 
the  Ascension  and  during  many  years  of  his  apostleship, 
actively  engaged  in  founding  the  Church  in  the  Holy 
City,  while  the  other  apostles  roamed  over  the  whole 
world  spreading  the  Glad  Tidings.  Tradition  attributes 
to  him  that  more  perfect  formation  of  ecclesiastical  or- 
der and  organization  which  history  discloses  at  the  end 
of  the  first  century.  The  churches  which  others  had 
founded  he  visited,  being  the  survivor  of  all  his 
brother  apostles,  setting  in  order  and  forming  into 
a  real  spiritual  kingdom  the  scattered  believers  in 
the  Redeemer.  He  finally  fixed  his  abode  in  Ephe- 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN.  29 

sus,  the  chief  city  of  Asia  Minor.  Under  the  Emperor 
Domitian  he  suffered  a  painful  exile  in  the  Isle  of 
Patraos,  and  at  Rome  was  miraculously  saved  from 
death  in  a  cauldron  of  boiling  oil,  into  which  he  had 
been  cast  for  the  profession  of  the  faith  of  Christ. 
He  wrote  his  Gospel  about  the  year  80,  after  all 
the  other  Apostles  were  dead  and  their  generation  had 
almost  passed  away,  long  after  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem and  the  final  dispersion  of  the  Jews.  He  died 
in  the  reign  of  Trajan,  about  the  end  of  the  first 
Christian  century. 

Unlike  the  other  Evangelists,  St.  John  always 
aims  at  teaching  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  or  at  unveil- 
ing the  hidden  motives,  the  primary  causes  of  His 
works  and  words.  His  natural  disposition  was  con- 
templative, his  relations  with  Jesus  were  most  in- 
timate, and  the  epoch  when  God  caused  him  to  write 
stood  in  urgent  need  of  closer  study  of  the  divine 
personality  of  the  Redeemer.  Of  all  the  disciples, 
John's  gaze  penetrated  most  deeply  into  the  inner 
life  of  our  Lord. 

St.  John  is  a  perfect  type  of  the  contemplative 
East.  His  deep-gazing  Semitic  soul  sees  the  profound- 
est  mysteries  in  a  clear 
light,  and  discourses  of 
the  union  of  the  Godhead 
with  humanity  with  the 
same  spontaneous  simplic- 
ity as  he  narrates  the  light- 
est outward  occurrences  of 
the  Saviour's  daily  life. 
He  seems  overflowing  with 
the  ideas  of  the  Incarna- 
tion, God  becoming  man, 
man  elevated  to  the  Deity.  .«..  JOHN  m  THE  ISLAND  OP  PATMOS. 


30  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

The  other  Evangelists,  says  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
have  given  us  the  bodily  Gospel,  St.  John  the  spiritual 
Gospel.  They  have,  indeed,  shown  forth  the  Christian 
faith  by  the  events  of  the  life  of  Jesus  and  by  the 
plainer  discourses  of  His  mission,  but  St.  John  has 
revealed  to  us  in  a  special  manner  the  spirit  of  the 
Master.  From  the  first  words  of  his  Gospel  to  the  last 
we  are  under  the  spell  of  immediate  contact  with  the 
divine  generation  of  Jesus,  as  in  the  other  Gospels 
we  dwell  more  directly  with  His  human  nature. 

The  providence  of  God  reserved  this  Gospel  to 
the  last  moments  of  inspired  writing  for  special 
reasons.  At  the  time  it  was  written  the  Gnostics 
were  propagating  false  mysticism,  and  in  St.  John  is 
the  root  and  branch,  flower  and  fruit  of  true  mysti- 
cism, union  with  the  Deity  through  the  Incarnate 
Word.  Among  Jewish  converts  the  Ebionites  were 
at  that  same  time  questioning  the  divinity  of  Christ, 
and  here  in  St.  John  is  the  veil  lifted,  and  the 
mystery  of  the  God- Man  dogmatically  defined,  elabor- 
ately and  repeatedly  expounded.  St.  John's  is  more 
a  doctrinal  than  a  historical  Gospel.  Yet  he  holds 
strictly  to  the  chronological  order  of  events,  and  thus 
often  completes  the  narrative  of  his  fellow-evangelists. 
The  Messias,  Redeemer,  Wonder-worker,  Teacher, 
of  St.  John  is  identical  with  the  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
of  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke.  But  in  the  Synoptics 
He  is  the  people's  preacher  instructing  the  hill- folk 
of  Galilee  ;  while  in  St.  John  He  is  indeed  this,  but 
above  all  He  is  the  majestic  and  often  defiant  Master, 
disputing  with  the  doctors  of  the  law  in  the  centre 
of  Judaism,  revealing  the  deep  things  of  God  to  an 
audience  capable  of  understanding  them.  Every- 
where in  the  Fourth  Gospel  we  find  the  blending 
into  one  divine  personality  of  the  harmonies  of  the 


THE  GOSPELS  A   TRUTHFUL  NARRATIVE.  31 

infinite  and  the  finite.  It  is  a  figure  in  the  garb 
of  common  life,  but  in  every  feature  and  tone  and 
gesture  revealing  the  credentials  of  the  highest  leader- 
ship. 

THE   GOSPELS    A   TRUTHFUL   NARRATIVE. 

We  have  already  shown  that  the  Four  Gospels 
are  authentic  ;  that  is  to  say,  really  the  work  of  the 
men  whose  names  they  bear.  Indeed,  as  sceptical  a 
mind  as  Renan's  is  willing  to  admit  this.  It  is 
equally  certain  that  they  are  a  truthful  narrative. 
One  argument,  and  it  is  of  decisive  weight,  is  that 
no  error  or  imposture  has  ever  been  proven  against 
the  Gospels.  Could  this  whole  history  or  any  part 
of  it  be  a  lie  and  remain  undetected  amid  the  very 
people  who  were  its  contemporaries  ?  The  Apostles 
were  inferior  to  the  learned  class  of  the  Jews  as  far 
as  mental  acquirements  go  :  why  were  they  not  detected 
and  exposed  as  frauds  or  fanatics?  Why  was  no  at- 
tempt made  to  do  this  ?  Why  have  all  subsequent 
attempts  failed  utterly  to  injure  the  integrity  of 
their  testimony  ?  The  fact  is,  that  their  unsophisticated 
character  made  them  the  best  witnesses.  Meanwhile 
not  one  of  them  has  the  traits  of  a  visionary.  They 
write  as  only  sensible  men  could  write,  calmly  and 
earnestly,  equally  self-disciplined  and  enthusiastic,  as 
became  reasonable  beings  moved  by  intense  convic- 
tion. They  were  too  simple  in  the  beginning  to  be 
impostors ;  they  were  afterwards  too  powerful  to  be 
dupes. 

Another  argument  for  their  truthfulness  is  found 
in  the  writers'  motives ;  it  is  certain  that  the 
Evangelists  had  everything  to  lose  and  nothing  to 
gain  by  writing  their  narrative.  Their  amazing  his- 
tory could  only  end  in  persecution,  fetters,  torture, 


32  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

death.  Did  they  not  know  this?  Did  they  not  calmly 
state  the  Saviour's  own  emphatic  prophecy  of  it  ? 
Yet  they  wrote,  though  they  were  absolutely  certain 
of  writing  their  own  doom.  They  were  perfectly  in- 
different as  to  what  might  happen  to  them,  conscious 
only  of  two  things  :  their  own  truthfulness  and  the 
resistless  impulse  from  above  compelling  them  to 
write.  They  left  consequences  to  God,  telling  noth- 
ing that  was  doubtful,  wholly  unconscious  of  their 
audience.  Furthermore,  their  own  unfeigned  religious 
sentiment,  heard  as  an  undertone  in  their  every  utter- 
ance, reveals  their  motives.  Their  evident  love  of 
God  is  in  entire  harmony  with  the  divinity  of  the 
system  they  represent :  their  motives  and  their  doc- 
trine are  of  a  piece.  The  very  fact  that  the  Apostles 
could  preach  and  write  the  Gospel  is  a  miracle  in  it- 
self: Galilean  peasants  could  never  have  stated,  and 
repeated,  and  expounded  so  exactly  and  consistently 
the  dogmatic  truths  and  moral  precepts  of  a  highly 
spiritual  religion  without  divine  assistance — without 
having  been  radically  transformed  into  a  higher  order 
of  men. 

Another,  and  to  some  minds  a  more  conclusive, 
argument  than  any,  is  that  drawn  from  the  exist- 
ence of  an  overruling  Providence.  The  authentic 
life  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  summary  of  His  relig- 
ious system  are  part  of  His  mission.  Hither  God  did 
not  send  Him,  or  God  will  make  sure  that  He  shall 
be  faithfully  made  known  to  succeeding  generations. 
If  the  teaching  of  this  foremost  of  God's  messengers 
is  not  accurately  given  in  the  Gospels,  where  is  it 
given  ?  The  mere  suspicion  of  falsehood  in  the  nar- 
rative would  nullify  the  supremacy  of  Christ.  Is  it 
credible  that  faithless  followers  should  be  permitted 
by  Providence  to  substitute  their  impostures  for  the 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  GOSPELS.  33 

true  teaching  of  the  Being  whom  the  mass  of  man- 
kind joyfully  recognize,  and  cannot  help  but  accept, 
as  the  highest  representative  of  the  Deity  ? — or  that 
dreamers  should  substitute  their  ravings  for  His  doc- 
trines ?  The  Incarnation  is  a  bitter  mockery  to  hu- 
manity if  Jesus  Christ  be  not  wholly  His  veritable 
self,  living  and  speaking  in  these  holy  books  and  in 
His  Church.  If  the  Church  of  Christ  and  His  holy 
Gospels  can  be  deceivers  of  men,  then  Christ  in  as- 
cending to  heaven  left  us  worse  than  orphans. 
"  And  I  will  ask  the  Father,  and  He  shall  give  you 
another  Paraclete,  that  He  may  abide  with  you 
forever."  This  Spirit  of  truth  "will  teach  you  all 
things,  and  bring  all  things  to  your  mind,  whatsoever 
I  shall  have  said  to  you  "  (John  xiv.  16,  26).  And 
this  interposition  of  the  Divine  Spirit  the  Apostles 
felt  and  affirmed  as  a  transforming  power  sustaining 
them  from  the  day  of  Pentecost  (I.  Peter  i.  12)  ; 
"as  it  is  now  revealed  to  His  holy  Apostles  and 
prophets  in  the  Spirit"  (Eph.  iii.  5).  If  God  thus 
safeguarded  the  spoken  word  which  flowed  in  a 
living  stream  throughout  the  world,  much 
rather  the  written  word,  which  must  remain 
during  the  lapse  of  ages  in  the  custody  of 
His  Church. 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  GOSPELS. 

L,et  us  say  a  word  about  the  relation  of 
the  Church  to  the  Gospels,  which  is  that 
of  a  most  intimate  and  inseparable  union. 
Although  the  New  Testament  is  not  to  the 
Church  of  Christ  what  the  Old  Testament 
was  to  the  Jewish  Church — for  that  was  a 
religion  of  a  book — yet  the  Holy  Spirit  gave 
us  a  priceless  boon  in  the  written  word  of  ™E 


34  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

the  New  Dispensation.  Of  course  we  know  that  the 
Redeemer  of  men  and  the  Founder  of  the  Church  did 
not  write  any  portion  of  the  Scriptures ;  He  did  not 
command  them  to  be  written  ;  of  all  the  Apostles  only 
six  wrote  anything  now  extant ;  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant parts  of  the  New  Testament  were  written  by 
men  who  were  not  Apostles — St.  Luke  was  not  even  a 
disciple ;  the  Apostles  did  not  jointly  and  officially 
approve  of  it  or  any  part  of  it,  except  in  a  vague 
mention  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles  by  St.  Peter;  the 
Gospels  and  other  parts  of  the  New  Testament  were 
produced  at  divers  times  and  for  separate  purposes  ; 
none  of  them  explicitly  lays  claim  to  inspiration ; 
nor  does  any  part  claim  to  be  conterminous  with  the 
oral  Gospel  which  was  the  first  in  use.  Of  course, 
again,  we  know  that  the  Church  preceded  the  written 
Gospel ;  the  religion  of  Christ  was  fully  organized 
without  any  written  code ;  the  Christian  -Brother- 
hood antedates  the  Christian  Scriptures;  preaching 
went  before  writing — preaching  and  organization. 
Christianity,  unlike  Judaism,  is  not  essentially  a  re- 
ligion of  a  book  ;  it  is  essentially  a  Brotherhood,  a 
Church.  To  the  Church  the  Scriptures  belong  as 
common  property,  not  to  individual  members  as  pri- 
vate property.  Hers  it  was  to  know  their  inspiration 
infallibly,  hers  always  infallibly  to  explain  their 
meaning,  to  superintend  their  distribution  and  per- 
petuation. The  history  of  the  New  Testament  in  its 
origin,  arrangement  of  its  parts,  and  the  belief  of 
Christians  in  its  inspiration,  shows  the  need  of  the 
Church  to  establish  the  written  truth  of  God  among 
men. 

All  this  being  true,  we  also  know  the  inestima- 
ble uses  of  the  New  Testament  to  the  Church  in 
her  mission  to  sanctify  men's  souls.  This  is  .beauti- 


FOUNDATIONS  OF  OUR  NARRATIVE.  35 

fully  described  by  St.  Francis  de  Sales  by  the  follow- 
ing illustration.  He  compares  God  to  a  painter,  the 
Church  to  His  brush,  the  Scriptures  and  divine 
tradition  is  the  color,  and  the  soul  of  man  is  God's 
canvas.  He  saturates  His  Church  with  revealed 
truth  as  a  painter  fills  his  brush  with  paint,  and, 
just  as  the  artist  by  his  brush  transfers  his  own 
mental  picture  to  his  canvas,  so  God  teaches,  guides, 
influences,  sanctifies  men  by  the  wisdom  and  ordi- 
nances and  graces  of  His  Divine  Son  by  means  of 
His  Church. 

It  is  from  the  Gospels,  witnesses  so  true  and  so 
sacred,  that  we  are  to  construct  the  I/ife-  of  Jesus, 
and  almost  exclusively  from  them ;  not  only  because 
little  of  importance  can  be  learned  from  pagan  and 
Jewish  sources,  but  also  because  the  testimony  of 
the  Evangelists  is  incomparably  the  best  that  could 
be  desired.  The  narrative,  though  plainly  incomplete 
in  many  details — professedly  so — yet,  by  patient  com- 
parison of  dates  and  places  as  given  in  the  various 
accounts,  is  readily  fitted  into  a  complete  history. 
At  any  rate,  the  effect  on  our  souls  does  not  depend 
on  such  questions  as  whether  Jesus  was  here  or 
there  at  this  or  that  particular  day ;  we  have  a 
knowledge  of  all  His  glorious  doctrine  and  all  His 
wonderful  deeds  in  fairly  consecutive  order. 

The  lyife  of  Christ  falls  naturally  into  three  divi- 
sions. The  first  is  the  preparatory  and  mostly  Hidden 
Life  of  our  Saviour,  from  the  visits  of  the  Angel 
to  Zachary  and  to  Mary  until  the  proclamation  of 
the  Messias  by  John  the  Baptist.  It  occupies  thirty 
years,  and  includes  the  two  marvellous  messages  from 
Heaven,  the  Birth  of  the  Baptist  and  of  Jesus,  the 
visit  of  the  Wise  Men  from  the  East,  the  Presenta- 


36  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

tion  in  the  Temple,  the  Flight  into  Egypt  and  the 
massacre  of  the  Innocents,  and  the  losing  and  find- 
ing of  the  Child  Jesus  by  His  parents. 

The  second  part  is  the  Public  lyife  of  Jesus,  the 
teaching  of  His  doctrine  and  the  organizing  of  His 
Church.  In  Galilee,  in  Judea,  even  in  Samaria,  we 
shall  follow  Him  preaching  the  kingdom  of  God 
and  working  miracles,  all  appropriate  to  the  good 
and  evil  tendencies  which  He  brought  to  light  among 
the  people,  as  a  physician  develops  the  symptoms 
and  discovers  the  health  reserves  of  his  suffering 
patient,  prescribing  His  remedies  of  divine  truth, 
and  choosing  for  the  perpetuation  of  His  healing  His 
staff  of  spiritual  physicians — founding  His  Church 
in  the  persons  of  His  Apostles  and  disciples.  At 
well- chosen  times,  Jesus  will  boldly  advance  His 
cause  from  Galilee  and  the  other  outlying  provinces 
into  Judea  itself,  and  make  Jerusalem  the  centre  of 
His  activity,  and,  alas  !  the  field  of  battle.  Three 
times  He  appears  in  the  Holy  City.  Once  suddenly, 
at  the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  when  He  proclaims  solemn- 
ly His  divine  mission,  quickly  eludes  the  snares  of 
His  enemies  and  escapes  out  of  the  city.  Again,  at 
the  feast  of  the  Dedication  of  the  Temple,  when  He 
publicly  and  more  boldly  reaffirms  His  office  of  Mes- 
sias.  And  again,  at  the  last  Passover  of  His  life, 
when  He  enters  in  triumph  amid  the  plaudits  of  the 
people,  and  ends  all  by  permitting  His  enemies  to 
put  Him  to  death.  But  each  of  these  manifestations 
in  the  city  is  preceded  by  journeys  into  the  neighbor- 
ing districts  of  Judea,  across  the  Jordan,  and  into 
Samaria,  spent  in  mingled  retirement  for  the  sake 
of  prayer  and  in  teaching  the  people.  So,  there- 
fore, when  the  hour  of  His  death  sounded,  Jesus  had 
been  seen  and  heard  throughout  all  Israel. 


FOUNDATIONS  OF  OcJR  NARRATIVE. 


37 


The  third  part  of  the  Life  narrates  the  end  of 
Jesus  Christ.  The  Divine  Victim,  delivering  Him- 
self into  the  power  of  His  enemies,  is  immolated  for 
the  salvation  of  the  world  :  His  enemies  have  gained 
the  victory.  But  Jesus  raises  Himself  from  death  to 
life,  completes  the  teaching  and  organizing  of  His 
Church,  and  ascends  on  high  to  take  possession  of 
His  glory.  The  Descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon 
the  Apostles  and  their  establishment  of  their  Master's 
religion  is  the  sequel. 


BOOK  I. 


The  Hidden  Life  of  Jesus. 


38  to  4* 


THE  HIDDEN  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   MIRACULOUS  CONCEPTION  OF  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST 
Luke  i.  5-56. 

T.  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  was  the 
saint  with  whom  it  pleased  God  to 
close  the  older  dispensation  and  its 
long  line  of  heroes — a  saint  whose 
virtues  should  be  a  worthy  type 
of  the  ancient  glories  of  Israel.  His 
origin  was  from  the  purest  sources 
of  Hebrew  holiness,  the  venerable  couple  Zachary 
and  Elizabeth,  and  was  intimately  joined  to  the  con- 
ception and  birth  of  the  Messias,  of  whom  he  was 
appointed  to  be  the  precursor. 

' '  There  was  in  the  days  of  Herod  the  king  of 
Judea,  a  certain  priest  named  Zachary,  of  the  course 
•of  Abia,  and  his  wife  was  of  the  daughters  of  Aaron, 
and  her  name  Elizabeth.  And  they  were  both  just 
before  God,  walking  in  all  the  commandments  and 
justifications  of  the  Lord  without  blame."  They  were 
lonely  in  their  old  age,  for  the  Lord  had  afflicted 
Elizabeth  with  sterility,  among  the  Jews  a  mark  of 
God's  disfavor.  "And  they  had  no  son,  for  that 
Elizabeth  was  barren,  and  they  both  were  well  ad- 
vanced in  years." 

Zachary  was  a  devout  servant  of  the  divine  altar, 
far  removed  from  the  worldliness  of  some  of  his  brother 
41 


42  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

priests  and  the  petty  externalism  of  others.  He  and 
his  wife  (who  was  a  cousin  of  Mary  of  Nazareth) 
bore  patiently  the  weary  years  of  their  childlessness. 
They  had  prayed  earnestly  for  a  son,  and  when  God 
had  allowed  the  time  of  child-bearing  to  pass  away, 
they  were  submissive  to  His  will.  Their  prayers  and 
their  patience  were  destined  to  be  miraculously  re- 
warded. 

It  was  to  Zachary  that  it  pleased  God  to  send  the 
earliest  announcement  that  the  world's  redemption 
was  at  hand.  In  the  performance  of  his  priestly 
duty  in  the  Temple  he  had  entered  the  Holy  of 
Holies  to  offer  incense.  This  was  a  function 
which  he  must  celebrate  entirely  alone  and  in 
the  seclusion  of  Israel's  most  awful  sanctuary, 
the  multitude  being  prostrate  in  prayer  without. 
TABLE  OP  SHOW-BREAD.  We  may  well  SUppOse  that  God  opened  this  true 
priest's  heart  to  the  entire  race  of  mankind  in  pre- 
paration for  his  marvellous  vision,  but  especially  that 
his  holy  soul,  forgetting  personal  unworthiness,  ex- 
panded and  embraced  in  its  offering  to  God  His  own 
chosen  race,  upon  whom  Zachary  well  knew  all  other 
races  depended  for  their  redemption.  As  the  fragrant 
incense  ascended  it  bore  his  heartfelt  petitions  up- 
ward to  the  throne  of  grace. 

As  Zachary  stood   in  the  holy  place,    at   his  right 
hand  was  the  table  bearing  the  loaves  of  proposition, 
and  the    seven-branched   candlestick  at  his   left ; 
immediately   in    front  was  the    altar  of   incense, 
shining  with  purest  gold,  its  door  covered  with  a 
purple  veil.     Suddenly   a   flashing   light   dazzled 
and   almost    blinded  him, — at  the  right    side   of 
the  altar,  just    beside   the   bread  of  proposition, 
stood  an  angel  of  the  Lord.     Zachary 's  humility 
INCENSE-ALTARS.        overwhelms  him  :  is  this  a  visitation  for  his  sins  ? 


CONCEPTION  OF  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST. 


43 


' '  He  was  troubled  and  fear  fell  upon 
him."  The  angel  speaks  and  fear 
gives  place  to  a  thrill  of  ecstasy : 
11  Fear  not,  Zachary,  for  thy  prayer 
is  heard;  and  thy  wife  Elizabeth 
shall  bear  thee  a  son. ' '  As  the  angel 
goes  on  with  the  amazing  message 
the  aged  priest's  bosom  swells  with 
joy — a  man-child  sent  from  God  !  to 
be  named  John,  Jehochanan — mean- 
ing the  favor  of  Jehovah  !  More,  oh  ! 
wonderfully  more :  he  is  to  be  a 
prophet,  another  Elias,  a  leader  of 
Israel,  "to  prepare  unto  the  L/ord 
a  perfect  people." 

But  the  suddenness  of  the  revela- 
tion, the  ,great  angel,  the  amazing 
promise — it  was  all  too  much  for 
even  Zachary 's  faith  to  accept  with- 
out a  momentary  reaction.  "  Where- 
by shall  I  know  this  ?"  he  trembling- 
ly asked,  "  for  I  am  an  old  man,  and 
my  wife  is  advanced  in  years."  The 
angel  simply  insisted,  "  I  am  Gabriel 
who  stand  before  God,  and  am  sent 
to  speak  to  thee."  He  deigned  to  give  no  further 
explanation,  but  struck  Zachary  dumb  for  his  hesi- 
tation in  receiving  his  message.  It  is  noticeable 
that  when  Abraham  under  similar  circumstances 
begged  an  explanation  from  God,  he  was  given  it 
and  not  punished  for  asking.  Plainly,  God  is  now 
going  to  do  wonders  superior  to  those  of  the  olden 
time,  and  He  will  demand  a  more  implied  faith. 

' '  And   the  people  were   waiting  for   Zachary  ;  and 
they     wondered     that     he    tarried     so     long    in    the 


THE   VISION    OF    ZACHARY. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  when  he  executed 
the  priestly  function  in  the  order  of  his 
course  before  God,  according;  to  the  cus- 
tom of  the  priestly  office,  it  was  his  lot  to 
offer  incense,  going  into  the  temple  of  the 
Lord  :  and  all  the  multitude  of  the  people 
was  staying  without  at  the  hour  of  in- 
cense. And  there  appeared  to  him  an 
Angel  of  the  Lord,  standing  on  the  right 
side  of  the  altar  of  incense.  And  Zachary 
seeing  him  VTJLS  troubled,  and  fear  fell  upon 
him ;  but  the  Angel  said  to  him :  Fear 
not,  Zachary,  for  thy  prayer  is  heard  ;  and 
thy  wife  Elizabeth  shall  bear  thee  a  son, 
and  thou  shall  call  his  name  John  :  and 
thou  shalt  have  joy  and  gladness,  and 
many  shall  rejoice  in  his  nativity.  For  he 
shall  be  great  before  the  Lord  :  and  shall 
drink  no  wine  nor  strong  drink ;  and  he 
shall  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  even 
from  his  mother's  womb.  And  he  shall 
convert  many  of  the  children  of  Israel  to 
the  Lord  their  God.  And  he  shall  go  be- 
fore him  in  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elias; 
that  he  may  turn  the  hearts  of  the  fathers 
unto  the  children,  and  the  incredulous  to 
the  wisdom  of  the  just,  to  prepare  unto  the 
Lord  a  perfect  people.  And  Zachary  said 
to  the  Angel  :  Whereby  shall  I  know 
this  ?  for  I  am  an  old  man,  and  my  wife 
is  advanced  in  years.  And  the  Angel  an- 
swering, said  to  him  :  I  am  Gabriel  who 
stand  before  God  :  and  am  sent  to  speak  to 
thee,  and  to  bring  thee  these  good  tidings. 
And  behold  thou  shalt  be  dumb,  and  shalt 
not  be  able  to  speak  until  the  day  wherein 
these  things  shall  come  to  pass  ;  because 
thou  hast  not  believed  my  words,  which 
shall  be  fulfilled  in  their  time. 


44  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Temple.*'  When  he  came  forth  they  perceived  by 
his  altered  appearance  that  some  marvel  had  hap- 
pened to  him,  "And  when  he  came  out  he  could 
not  speak  to  them,  and  they  understood  that  he 
had  seen  a  vision  in  the  Temple."  His  voice  was 
gone,  but  he  managed  to  inform  his  priestly  brethren, 
and  through  them  the  people,  that  he  had  been 
granted  a  vision  from  heaven.  His  return  home  to 
Elizabeth  was  a  more  joyous  announcement  of  the 
great  event.  "  And  it  came  to  pass,  after  the  days 
of  his  office  were  accomplished,  he  departed  to  his 
own  house.  And  after  those  days  Elizabeth  his  wife 
conceived ;  and  hid  herself  five  months,  saying : 
Thus  hath  the  Lord  dealt  with  me  in  the  days 
wherein  he  hath  had  regard  to  take  away  my  re- 
proach among  men."  But  Zachary's  punishment  of 
dumbness  (and,  it  is  plain,  of  deafness  also)  lasted 
during  his  wife's  pregnancy. 

Six  months  of  Elizabeth's  time  had   elapsed  when 
she  was  visited  by  Mary  of  Nazareth,  bearing  Jesus 
in   her  womb.     Mary   came   to    wait   upon   her    aged 
cousin  during  the  time  of  her  confinement,   and  also 
to    confide    to    her    the    secret   of  her 
divine  maternity.     But  as  Mary  began 
jj\    to   speak,    Elizabeth's   child  leaped  in 
her  womb   for  joy  :    the   Messias 
had  made  Himself  known  to  His 
precursor ;  at  a  later  day  it  would 
be    John's    high    prerogative     to 
make  Jesus  known   to  all   Israel. 
Of  what   happened    at   this    visit 
of  Mary    to    the    aged  couple 
we  will  in  due  time  tell  more 
in    detail.      Suffice    it  to    say 
now,     that     Mary     found     in 


And  whence  is  this  to  me,  that  the  paother  of 
my  Lord  should  visit  me  "  (Luke  i.  43). 


THE  BIRTH  AND  CIRCUMCISION  OF  JOHN.  45 

Elizabeth  the  sacred  confidant  she  sought,  and  that 
she  ministered  lovingly  to  her  during  her  child  labor 
and  at  the  birth  of  John. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE    BIRTH    AND     CIRCUMCISION    OF    JOHN. — THE    CAN- 
TICLE   OF    ZACHARY. 

Luke  i.  57—80. 

How  happily  passed  the  last  period  of  Elizabeth's 
pregnancy  in  such  company,  in  the  exchange  of 
such  tidings  from  above !  When  her  son  was  born 
this  gladness  was  spread  among  all  their  friends  and 
neighbors.  "  Now  Elizabeth's  full  time  of  being  de- 
livered was  come,  and  she  brought  forth  a  son.  And 
her  neighbors  and  kinsfolks  heard  that  the  Lord  had 
shewed  His  great  mercy  towards  her,  and  they  con- 
gratulated with  her." 

As  in  the  case  of  other  great  heroes  of  God's  peo- 
ple, the  Holy  Ghost  would  be  the  precursor's  god- 
father and  would  choose  his  name.  "And  it  came 
to  pass  that  on  the  eighth  day  they  came  to  circum- 
cise the  child,  and  they  called  him  by  his  father's 
name,  Zachary.  And  his  mother  answering,  said: 
Not  so,  but  he  shall  be  called  John.  And  they  said 
to  her :  There  is  none  of  thy  kindred  that  is  called 
by  this  name."  Not  for  earthly  kinship  was  John 
named,  but  for  the  entire  race  of  mankind,  God's  en- 
tire family.  The  writing  down  of  the  heaven-given 
name  was  the  talisman  that  loosened  Zachary's  tongue. 
"And  they  made  signs  to  his  father,  how  he  would 
have  him  called.  And  demanding  a  writing-table, 
he  wrote,  saying  :  John  is  his  name.  And  they  all 
wondered.  And  immediately  his  mouth  was  opened 
and  his  tongue  loosed,  and  he  spoke,  blessing  God." 


46  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Immediately  John  took  his  place  as  a  child  of  re- 
ligious hope  among  the  people.  "And  fear  came 
upon  all  their  neighbors :  and  all  these  words  were 
divulged  over  all  the  mountainous  country  of  Judea. 
And  all  they  who  had  heard  them  laid  them  up  in 
their  hearts,  saying  :  What  a  one,  think  ye,  shall  this 
child  be?  For  the  hand  of  the  Lord  was  with  him." 
Our  farewell  glimpse  of  the  beau- 
tiful old  couple  of  elect  souls  is 
Zachary,  all  transfigured  with  divine 
inspiration,  holding  his  sanctified 
child  in  his  arms  and  singing  the 
Benedictus,  Mary  and  the  other 
friends  of  the  family  grouped  about 
him.  The  theme  of  this  divine 
poem  is  God's  constant  friendship 
for  His  people,  not  forgetting  the 
nations  "that  sit  in  darkness  and 
the  shadow  of  death." 

This  hymn  of  praise  and  prophecy 
has  ever  since  resounded  in  Holy 
Church.  It  is  the  refrain  of  every 
day's  divine  chant  in  all  our  clois- 
ters, and  its  tones  of  confidence  in 
God  are  among  the  last  echoes  of 
the  Church's  prayer  at  the  Chris- 
tian's burial.  It  is  an  outburst  of  true  Jewish  enthu- 
siasm, nourished  by  the  hopes  and  promises  of  the 
Messias ;  but  it  is  also  a  song  of  great-hearted  love  to- 
wards all  mankind,  of  promise  for  every  child  of  man 
languishing  in  the  shadow  of  sin  and  delusion.  It 
ends  with  the  manner  of  the  new  gift's  distribution, 
which  is  not  by  the  sword  but  by  the  '  *  beautiful  feet ' ' 
of  those  who  shall  publish  the  Glad  Tidings  in  the 
ways  of  peace, 


THE    SONG    OF    ZACHARY. 

And  Zachary  his  father  was  filled  with 
the  Holy  Ghost :  and  he  prophesied,  say- 
ing :  Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  of  Israel, 
because  he  hath  visited  and  wrought  the 
redemption  of  his  people:  and  hath  raised 
up  a  horn  of  salvation  to  us,  in  the  house 
of  David  his  servant :  As  he  spoke  by  the 
mouth  of  his  holy  prophets,  who  are  from 
the  beginning:  Salvation  from  our  ene- 
mies, and  from  the  hand  of  all  that  hate 
us :  To  show  mercy  to  our  fathers  ;  and  to 
remember  his  holy  covenant.  The  oath 
which  he  swore  to  Abraham  our  father, 
that  he  would  grant  to  us :  That  being  de- 
livered from  the  hand  of  our  enemies,  we 
may  serve  him  without  fear,  in  holiness 
and  justice  before  him  all  our  days.  And 
thou,  child,  shalt  be  called  the  prophet  of 
the  Most  High  :  for  thou  shalt  go  before 
the  face  of  the  Lord,  to  prepare  his  way  : 
To  give  knowledge  of  salvation  to  his  peo- 
ple, unto  the  remission  of  their  sins, 
through  the  bowels  of  the  mercy  of  our 
God  :  in  which  the  Orient  from  on  high 
hath  visited  us  :  To  enlighten  them  that 
sit  m  darkness,  and  in  the  shadow  of 
death  :  to  direct  our  feet  into  the  way  of 
peace. 


THE  BIRTH  AND  CIRCUMCISION  OF  JOHN.  47 

St.  Luke  now  leaves  John,  to  find  him  again  thirty 
years  later.  "  And  the  child  grew,  and  was  strength- 
ened in  spirit :  and  was  in  the  deserts  until  the  day 
of  his  manifestation  to  Israel."  Always  in  solitude 
have  men  of  the  nobler  kind,  found  the  fire  which 
could  best  temper  their  souls;  solitude  is  the  school 
of  the  higher  order  of  minds.  The  ideal  leader  of 
men  is  formed  by  God  in  the  desert,  where  the  in- 
visible world  finds  an  accompaniment  in  visible  nature 
solemn  enough  for  its  sacred  lessons.  To  the  wilder- 
ness, therefore,  John  was  called,  as  had  been  called 
before  him  all  the  Hebrew  prophets,  whose  glorious 
procession  he  was  destined  to  close. 


48  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE    DIVINE    ORIGIN     OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

John  i.  1-14. 

As  Jesus  is  both  God  and  man,  we  trace  His  ori- 
gin, under  the  guidance  of  the  Evangelists,  to  God 
the  Father  in  the  heaven  of  heavens  for  His  divine 
nature  ;  and  as  son  of  Mary,  we  follow  his  genealogy 
back  through  King  David  to  Abraham  and  Adam  : 
Son  of  God  and  Son  of  Man.  Sts.  Matthew  and 
Luke  guide  us  in  investigating  the  human  sonship ; 
St.  John  was  chosen  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  establish 
in  a  special  manner  the  divine  Sonship. 

The  teaching  of  Christ's  divinity  is  not,  however, 
the  office  of  St.  John  exclusively,  for  the  other  Evan- 
gelists are  one  with  him  in  this.  But  they  were  not  so 
specially  chosen  to  elucidate  the  supreme  dogma  as 
he  who  was  by  excellence  the  beloved  disciple.  They 
wrote,  as  we  have  seen,  very  many  years  before  he 
did  and  during  a  period  when  the  main  purpose  of  the 
Church  was  the  conversion  of  the  Jews,  fiercely  suspi- 
cious of  what  might  be  hurtful  to  monotheism.  Yet 
with  the  Synoptics  Jesus  is  God :  Emmanuel,  which 
is  God  with  us ;  Son  of  God  without  restriction  of 
meaning,  and  in  a  manner  essentially  above  the  usual 
meaning  of  the  term  as  applied  to  holy  men.  They 
aimed  at  forcing  the  Jews  to  bring  out  the  divinity 
of  Christ  for  themselves,  using  such  terms,  and  es- 
pecially applying  the  prophecies  about  the  Messias 
in  such  a  sense,  as  to  suggest  the  divinity  to  a  think- 
ing mind.  Meantime  the  oral  Gospel  was  everywhere 
among  the  converts ;  the  living  word  of  every  teacher 
continually  pressed  home  this  great  truth  with  full 
explanations.  When  John  wrote,  the  time  was  ripe 


THE  DIVINE  ORIGIN  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.  49 

for  all,  even  foes  of  the  Church,  to  know  her  funda- 
mental doctrine  in  its  integrity,  as,  indeed,  all  who 
had  been  baptized  had  known  and  believed  it  already. 
And  we  shall  do  well  ever  to  bear  in  mind  the 
union  of  the  divine  and  human  natures  in  the  one 
divine  person  of  Jesus.  This,  firmly  grasped,  will  clear 
up  many  difficulties  in  the  amazing  life  we  are  to  study, 
and  will  guide  us  securely  into  the  secret  of  when  to 
strive  to  imitate  Jesus  and  when  simply  to  adore  Him. 

The  Greek  term  Logos,  "the 
Word,"  is  what  served  St.  John  in 
telling  the  Jews  of  the  Dispersion 
about  our  Saviour's  divine  nature, 
for  it  was  an  expression  used  in 
their  Greek  version  of  the  Scripture 
(Prov.  viii.)  It  meant  to  them  the 
uncreated  wisdom  of  the  Deity.  In 
the  beginning  God  was  the  Un- 
created Wisdom — before  all  time, 
and  therefore  eternal.  But  this 
God,  God  the  Word,  was  also  with 
God.  Now,  to  be  with  God  is  to 
be  distinct  from  God;  therefore 
God  is  both  God  the  Word  and 
God  the  Father.  Yet  is  there  in 
these  two  persons  but  one  God- 
head, for  St.  John  not  only  says 
"the  Word  was  with  God  "  but  also 
"the  Word  was  God."  The  Word  or  Son,  though 
a  Divine  Person,  distinct  from  the  Father,  is  none  the 
less  in  essence  one  with  Him,  a  different  person  of  the 
one  same  being,  consubstantial — that  is  to  say,  of  one 
substance — with  the  Father.  Of  this  uncreated  and 
eternal  Son  of  God  does  St.  John  say,  "The  Word 
was  made  Flesh." 


"THE    WORD    WAS    GOD." 

In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was 
God.  The  same  was  in  the  beginning 
with  God.  All  things  were  made  by  him  : 
and  without  him  was  made  nothing  that 
was  made.  In  him  was  life  ;  and  the  life 
was  the  light  of  men  :  and  the  light  shineth 
in  darkness ;  and  the  darkness  did  not  com- 
prehend it.  There  was  a  man  sent  from 
God,  whose  name  was  John.  This  man 
came  for  a  witness,  to  bear  witness  of  the 
light,  that  all  men  might  believe  through 
him.  He  was  not  the  light,  but  was  to  bear 
witness  of  the  light.  That  was  the  true  light, 
which  enlighteneth  every  man  that  cometh 
into  this  world.  He  was  in  the  world,  and 
the  world  was  made  by  him  ;  and  the  world 
knew  him  not.  He  came  unto  his  own  ; 
and  his  own  received  him  not.  But  as 
many  as  received  him,  to  them  he  gave 
power  to  be  made  the  sons  of  God,  to  them 
that  believe  in  his  name  :  Who  are  born, 
not  of  blood,  nor  <  f  the  will  of  the  flesh, 
nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God.  And 
the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among 
us  :  and  we  saw  his  glory,  the  glory  as  of 
the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of 
grace  and  truth. 


50  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

We  shall  often  find  in  the  Gospels  the  doctrine  of 
the  Third  Person  of  the  Godhead,  the  Holy  Ghost,—- 
the  Uncreated  and  Eternal  Love  of  God,  as  the  Son 
is  the  Uncreated  and  Eternal  Wisdom.  Thus  we 
have  the  revelation  of  the  fundamental  Christian  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity,  one  God  in  three  divine  persons, 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  Word  is  light  and  life.  "In  Him  was  life, 
and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men,"  "enlightening 
every  man  that  cometh  into  this  world."  If  any  man 
is  not  enlightened,  he  is  like  a  blind  man  at  midday; 
if  he  cannot  see,  the  fault  is  not  in  the  sunshine  but 
in  his  darkened  eyes.  That  all  men  might  see  and 
follow  the  light,  "the  Word  was  made  flesh."  They 
then  saw  His  glory,  ' '  the  glory  of  the  only  begotten 
of  the  Father,"  the  glory  of  grace  from  God,  and  of 
truth  overflowing  from  God  into  men's  souls. 

The  Evangelist  St.  John  was  himself  of  those  who 
with  their  own  eyes  saw  the  divine  and  eternal  Word 
in  the  flesh  as  a  man  sees  his  own  brother.  He  it 
is  who  so  faithfully  narrates  the  union  of  each  soul 
with  God  through  Christ — the  birth  of  the  soul  of 
man  into  the  new  life  of  light  and  virtue,  elevating 
it  into  a  condition  altogether  above  human  knowledge 
ancf  human  goodness,  being  a  condition  natural  not  to 
men  but  to  God,  "born  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the 
will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God." 
As  this  partaking  of  God  is  our  divine  genealogy  by 
adoption,  so  it  is  that  of  Christ  by  nature.  He  is 
essentially  God  and  the  Son  of  God,  not  created  but 
born  of  the  Father  before  all  ages :  God  of  God, 
Light  of  Light,  true  God  of  true  God.  His  divine 
origin  is  the  starting  point  of  St.  John  in  his  wonder- 
ful narrative. 


THE  GENEALOGY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    DESCENT    OF   JESUS    ACCORDING    TO  THE    FLESH. 
Matt.  i.  1-17 ;  Luke  Hi.  '23-38. 


THE      GENEALOGY     ACCORDING     TO 
ST.    MATTHEW. 

The  book  of  the  generation  of 
JESUS  CHRIST,  the  son  of  David, 
the  son  of  Abraham  :  Abraham  be- 
got Isaac.  And  Isaac  begot  Jacob. 
And  Jacob  begot  Judas  and  his 
brethren.  And  Judas  begot  Phares 
and  Zara  of  Thamar.  And  Phares 
begot  Esron.  And  Esron  begot 
Aram.  And  Aram  begot  Amina- 
dab.  And  Aminadab  begot  Naas- 
son.  And  Naasson  begot  Salmon. 
Arid  Salmon  begot  Booz  of  Rahab. 
And  Booz  begot  Obed  of  Ruth. 
And  Obed  begot  Jesse.  And  Jesse 
begot  David  the  king.  And  David 
the  king  begot  Solomon,  of  her 
that  had  been  the  wife  of  Urias. 
And  Solomon  begot  Roboam.  And 
Roboam  begot  Abia.  And  Abia 
begot  Asa.  And  Asa  begot  Josa- 
phat.  And  Josaphat  begot  Joram. 
And  Joram  begot  Ozias.  And 
Ozias  begot  Joatham.  And  Joa- 
tham  begot  Achaz.  And  Achaz  be- 
got Ezechias.  And  Ezechias  begot 
Manasses.  And  Manasses  begot 
Amon.  And  Amon  begot  Josias. 
And  Josias  begot  Jechonias  and  his 
brethren  in  the  transmigration  of 
Babylon.  And  after  the  transmi- 
gration of  Babylon,  Jechonias  begot 
Salathiel.  And  Salathiel  begot 
Zorobabel.  And  Zorobabel  begot 
Abiud.  ,  And  Abiud  begot  Eliacim. 
And  Eliacim  begot  Azor.  And 
Azor  begot  Sadoc.  And  Sadoc  be- 
got Achim.  And  Achim  begot 
Eliud.  And  Eliud  begot  Eleazar. 
And  Eleazar  begot  Mathan.  And 
Mathan  begot  Jacob.  And  Jacob 
begot  Joseph  the  husband  of  Mary, 
of  whom  was  born  JESUS,  who  is 
called  CHRIST.  So  all  the  genera- 
tions from  Abraham  to  David  are 
fourteen  generations.  And  from 
David  to  the  transmigration  of 
Babylon  are  fourteen  generations  : 
and  from  the  transmigration  of 
Babylon  to  Christ  are  fourteen 
generations. 


THE     GENEALOGY      ACCORDING     TO 
ST.    LUKE. 

JESUS  being  (as  it  was  supposed) 
the  son  of  Joseph,  who  was  of 
Heli,  who  was  of  Mathat,  who 
v/as  of  Levi,  who  was  of  Melchi, 
who  was  of  Janne,  who  was  of 
Joseph,  who  was  of  Mathathias, 
who  was  of  Amos,  who  was  of  Na- 
hum,  who  was  of  Hesli,  who  was  of 
Nagge,  who  was  of  Mahath,  who 
was  of  Mathathias,  who  was  of 
Semei,  who  was  of  Joseph,  who 
was  of  Juda,  Who  was  of  Joanna, 
who  was  of  Reza,  who  was  of 
Zorobabel,  who  was  of  Salathiel, 
who  was  of  Neri,  who  was  of 
Melchi,  who  was  of  Addi,  who  was 
of  Cosan,  who  was  of  Helmadan, 
who  was  of  Her,  who  was  of  Jesus, 
who  was  of  Eliezer,  who  was  of 
Jorim,  who  was  of  Mathat,  who 
was  of  Levi,  who  was  of  Simeon, 
who  was  of  Judas,  who  was  of 
Joseph,  who  was  of  Jona,  who  was 
of  Eliakim,  who  was  of  Melea, 
who  was  of  Menna,  who  was  of 
Mathatha,  who  was  of  Nathan, 
who  was  of  David,  who  was  of 
Jesse,  who  was  of  Obed,  who  was 
of  Booz,  who  was  of  Salmon,  who 
was  of  Naasson,  who  was  of 
Aminadab,  who  was  of  Aram,  who 
was  of  Esron,  who  was  of  Phares, 
who  was  of  Judas,  who  was  of 
Jacob,  who  was  of  Isaac,  who  was 
of  Abraham,  who  was  of  Thare, 
who  was  of  Nachor,  who  was  of 
Sarug,  who  was  of  Ragau,  who  was 
of  Phaleg,  who  was  of  Heber,  who 
was  of  Sale,  who  was  of  Cainan, 
who  was  of  Arphaxad,  who  was 
of  Sem,  who  was  of  Noe,  who  was 
of  Lamech,  who  was  of  Mathusale, 
who  was  of  Henoch,  who  was  of 
Jared,  who  was  of  Malaleel,  who 
was  of  Cainan,  who  was  of  He- 
nos,  who  was  of  Seth,  who  was 
of  Adam,  who  was  of  God. 


52  LIFE  OP  J&SUS  CHRIST. 

Both  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke  trace  our  Saviour's 
lineage  through  His  foster-father  St.  Joseph,  because 
he  and  Mary  were  both  of  the  family  of  David,  and 
because  it  was  customary  to  record  the  family  pedigree 
by  the  male  members. 

These  two  tables,  though  both  were  probably 
taken  from  official  records,  appear  different  from  each 
other.  In  one  Joseph  is  named  son  of  Heli,  and  in 
the  other  son  of  Jacob.  An  explanation  commonly 
offered  is  that  Heli  and  Jacob  were  brothers,  and 
that  Joseph  was  son  of  Jacob,  who  died  and  left 
Joseph  to  be  adopted  by  Heli  :  thus  Joseph  was  son 
of  Jacob  by  nature  and  of  Heli  by  adoption. 

Other  differences  in  these  lists  of  progenitors  are 
accounted  for  by  omissions  of  various  names  by  the 
Evangelists,  for  it  was  customary  among  the  Jews  to 
give  the  titles  of  father  and  son  to  any  persons  in 
direct  descent,  even  though  several  generations  re- 
moved from  each  other;  as,  for  example,  the  Messias 
was  always  named  Son  of  David. 

At  all  events,  Mary  has  for  Jesus  the  office  of  both 
human  father  and  mother,  and  in  tracing  her  descent 
(which  is  also  that  of  Joseph)  every  requirement  of 
genealogy  is  fulfilled.  Hence  St.  Matthew,  in  dis- 
tinctly stating  her  marital  relation  to  Joseph,  couples 
her  name  with  his  in  the  table  of  descent :  '  *  And 
Jacob  begot  Joseph,  the  husband  of  Mary,  of  whom 
was  born  Jesus,  who  is  called  the  Christ." 

It  may  be  surmised  that  St.  Matthew,  anxious  to 
preserve  the  legal  conditions,  had  obtained  his  record 
from  the  survivors  of  Joseph's  family ;  and  that  St. 
Luke  obtained  his  from  Mary  herself,  as  the  first 
chapters  of  his  narrative  show  an  intimate  communion 
with  her.  Also  we  notice  that  his  Gospel,  pretty  cer- 
tainly that  spoken  of  by  St.  Paul  as  "my  Gospel," 


THE  GENEALOGY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


53 


like  the  writings  of  that  Apostle  himself,  traces  the 
descent  of  the  Saviour  not  only  back  to  Abraham, 
the  father  of  the  faithful,  but  to  God  the  Father  of 
all  mankind.  Jesus  is  not  only  the  son  of  Abraham 
and  a  Jew ;  He  is  the  son  of  Adam  and  a  brother  of 
all  men.  His  redemption  is  as  universal  as  His 
family. 

Jesus  was,  however,  a  perfect  type  of  the  Hebrew 
people.  The  renowned  race  of  Israel  made  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  its  heir.  The  fulness  of  David's  mighty 
courage  was  His;  Abraham's  peaceful  contemplation 
of  God  and  faith  in  the  promises  were  His  ;  every  noble 
human  quality  of  kindness  or  loyalty  or  bravery  or 
patience  inherent  in  the  Jewish  nature  flowed  down 
into  the  heart  of  Jesus.  In  the  supernatural  order,  all 
the  predestination  of  God  for  this  favored  people  was 
concentrated  upon  Jesus,  together  with  the  complete- 
ness of  all  possible  spiritual  endowments  of  faith  and 
hope  and  love.  The  glorious  memories  of  the  heroic 
past  shall  be  radiant  upon  the  brow  of  the  Hebrew 
Messias.  Lowly  as  may  seem  His  lot,  the  Man  Christ 
shall  outshine  all  His  ancestors  in  majesty,  a  majesty 
only  the  more  inspiring  because  it  adorns  the  gracious 
quality  of  universal  love,  which  is  the  paramount  pre- 
rogative of  His  royalty. 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER   V. 

MARY    OF     NAZARETH      AND     JOSEPH      HER      ESPOUSED 
HUSBAND. 

Matt.  i.  1 6-1 8 ;  Luke  i.  27. 

HEN  the  first  man,  the  Old  Adam,  was  created, 
it  was  -by  infinite  power  breathing  spirit  life  into 
dead  clay.  "  He  breathed  into  his  face  the  breath 
of  life,  and  man  became  a  living  soul."  When  it 
pleased  the  Blessed  Trinity  to  renew  the  race  of 
man  through  the  Word  made  flesh,  the  New  Adam 
was  not  brought  into  existence  by  a  new  act  of 
creation;  but  God  breathes  the  breath  of  life  into 
the  heart  of  Mary  of  Nazareth,  unites  the  divine 
life  to  her  pure  blood,  and  thus  forms  Jesus  Christ 
for  the  renewal  of  the  fallen  race.  The  New  Adam 
is  conceived  and  born  of  the  old  race,  but  generated 
by  an  exclusive  act  of  infinite  power  and  love  with- 
out the  co-operation  of  human  paternity. 

But  God's  loving  condescension  went  even  further 
than  taking  the  same  human  nature  that  Adam  had 
tainted  by  sin  ;  Jesus  is  not  merely  Adam's  descend- 
ant, and  that  of  saintly  men  and  chaste  women,  with 
the  greatest  of  saints  for  His  mother ;  but  His  blood  is 
also  that  of  apostate  and  idolatrous  kings  and  shame- 
less harlots.  By  His  Mother,  however,  that  blood 
was  passed  to  Him  as  if  through  a  divine  alembic, 
and  cleansed  till  it  was  the  immaculate  blood  of  a 
perfect  humanity — worthy,  if  such  a  thing  were  possi- 
ble,' to  be  the  humanity  which  should  be  associated 
with  the  divinity.  This  is  the  full  meaning  of  the 
words  of  Isaias:  "  A  virgin  shall  conceive  and  shall 
bring  forth  a  Son,  and  His  name  shall  be  called  Em- 
manuel, God  with  us." 


MARY  OF  NAZARETH  AND  JOSEPH. 


55 


Mary,  Miriam,  a  virgin  of  the  royal  line  of  David, 
dwelt  at  Nazareth  in  Galilee.  Of  her  birth  and 
childhood  the  inspired  history  tells  us  nothing.  A 
very  venerable  tradition  affirms  that  her  father's  name 
was  Heli-Joachim,  and  her  mother's  name  Anna. 
She  had  an  elder  sister,  named  like  herself  Mary, 
wife  of  Cleophas,  whose  sons  James  and  Jude  after- 
wards became  disciples  of  our  Saviour.  The  fact  that 
Zachary's  wife  Elizabeth  was  Mary's  cousin,  shows 
that  she  was  not  only  of  the  race  of  David  and  tribe 
of  Juda,  but  also  had  priestly  blood  in  her  veins. 

The  very  first  mention  of  our  Virgin  of  Nazareth 
tells  us  that  she  was  espoused  to  Joseph,  like  herself 
an  obscure  member  of  the  family  of  David.  As  to 
Joseph,  what  greater  praise  could  be  given  to  mortal 
man :  he  was  made  worthy  by  God's  appointment  to  be 
the  beloved  spouse  of  Mary  of  Naza- 
reth. Both  being  descendants  of 
King  David,  they  were  legally  rela- 
tives. Perhaps  Mary  was  required 
by  the  law  of  Moses  to  marry  a  kins- 
man on  account  of  being  sole  heir  to 
a  little  family  property.  Whatever 
this  supposition  may  be  worth,  it  is 
certain  that  Joseph  was  gifted  by 
Heaven  with  the  qualities  which 
were  best  fitted  to  make  him  the 
virginal  spouse  of  the  very  queen  of 
all  womanly  perfection. 

That  Joseph  was  an  old  man,  or 
even  middle-aged,  when  he  married 
Mary,  there  is  no  evidence  what- 
ever. God  would  not  leave  this 
sacred  union  open  to  ridicule,  and 


A  Virgin  espoused  to  a  man  whose  nam 


,     ,          ,  , ,  .  r  was  Joseph,  of  the  house  of  David  ;  and  th 

people  laugh    at   the    marriage   of  an      Virgin's  name  was  Mary "  (Luke  i.  27). 


56  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRI^S. 

old  man  and  a  young  girl.  It  cannot  be  doubted 
that,  if  the  divine  purposes  were  to  be  attained, 
Mary's  husband  should  be,  and  should  plainly  appear 
to  be,  something  like  her  equal  in  natural  qualities. 
His  office  was  to  give  her  happy  companionship, 
lovingly  to  support  her  by  his  labor,  to  shield  her 
from  the  breath  of  calumny ;  and  all  of  this  could  be 
best  secured  only  by  a  husband  in  the  bloom  of  man- 
hood. Inasmuch  as  it  was  by  divine  appointment  that 
Joseph  was  Mary's  spouse,  that  holy  relationship  would 
be  to  him  the  source  of  many  graces.  Among  these, 
virginal  chastity  would  be  granted  in  perfection.  How 
holy  Joseph  must  have  been — that  one  man  of  all  the 
world  whom  Mary  was  to  affectionately  speak  of  as 
"my  husband";  of  whom  she  should  speak  to  her 
divine  child  as  "  Thy  father."  Was  there  ever  a  saint 
whose  love  was  so  deep  and  so  pure  ?  What  dignity 
but  Mary's  own  ever  surpassed  that  of  Joseph,  since  to 
him  was  referred  by  men  the  origin  of  the  humanity 
of  Jesus — "as  He  was  thought,  the  son  of  Joseph." 

This  marriage  was  an  ideal  one.  We  cannot  for  a 
moment  doubt  that  Joseph  in  choosing  Mary,  and  she 
in  accepting  him,  following  as  they  did  a  secret 
vocation  of  the  most  heavenly  kind,  were  granted  a 
perfect  mutual  affection.  How  deep  the  loyalty  of 
such  hearts,  how  perfect  their  devotion  to  each  other. 
And  how  angelic  a  nature  was  Joseph's,  to  be  a 
sharer  in  every  joy  and  sorrow  of  the  Mother  of  the 
Word  Incarnate. 

We  are  not  left  in  ignorance  as  to  the  process  of 
the  espousals  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  for  we  know  that 
they  must  have  followed  the  Hebrew  custom.  Joseph 
sought  the  hand  of  Mary  first  personally,  and  then 
by  presents  to  those  who  stood  to  her  in  the  place 
of  parents ;  upon  acceptance  of  his  proposal,-  he 


THE  SON  OF  GOD  BECOMES  MAN.  57 

took  an  oath  of  fidelity.  Then  a  considerable  period 
elapsed,  during  which  this  predestined  pair  seldom 
saw  each  other,  though  the  law  looked  upon  their 
union  as  settled,  the  parties  in  such  cases  often  being 
spoken  of  as  husband  and  wife.  . 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    SON    OF    GOD    BECOMES    MAN. 
Matt.  i.  1 8 ;  Luke  i.  26-38 ;  John  i.  14.. 

IT  was  during  this  interval  that  God  chose  the 
virgin  spouse  of  Joseph  for  her  unspeakable  privilege 
of  Mother  of  the  Eternal  Word.  Living  at  Nazareth, 
either  in  her  deceased  parents'  home,  or  with  her 
sister,  the  wife  of  Cleophas,  Mary  passed  her  time 
as  a  perfect  Jewish  maiden.  She  was  by  no  means 
a  recluse,  and  as  a  daughter  of  the  common  people 
she  sanctified  the  simple  domestic  cares  and  daily 
round  of  household  duties.  Content  with  these  for 
her  external  occupation,  her  soul  was  absorbed  in 
meditation  of  things  divine.  Apart  from  her  es- 
poused husband,  she  seldom  thought  of  men  and 
their  aims  and  ambitions,  content  with  praying  that 
God's  will  might  be  done  in  all  things,  rapt  in  the 
divine  love  and  submissive  to  the  order  of  life  and 
the  humble  destiny  which  seemed  all  that  was  allotted 
to  her — a  state  of  soul  which  is  the  basis  of  even 
the  loftiest  virtues  of  the  saints.  In  her  interior  life 
she  conversed  with  God  and  His  holy  angels  in  the 
most  intimate  communion  ;  her  outward  life  was  dili- 
gent attention  to  duty  and  loving  converse  with  her 
kinsfolk  and  neighbors.  How  many  happy  hours 
did  not  Mary  pass  in  reading  the  Scriptures — rejoic- 
ing in  the  living  faith  of  her  forefathers,  the  longings 


58  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

of  the  entire  race  for  the  Messias,  the  glorious  deeds 
of  the  mighty  warriors,  the  sweet  and  meek  piety 
of  the  holy  women  of  Israel ! — little  dreaming  that 
the  torrent  of  peaceful  bliss  which  poured  into  her 
soul  was  the  very  essence  of  all  those  virtues  of  the 
ancient  days.  She  could  not  know  that  the  super- 
natural favors  she  experienced,  the  ecstasies,  the 
inner  voices  of  God  and  of  His  holy  servants,  the 
radiant  light  that  illumined  the  sacred  page, — that 
all  these,  usual  and  almost  commonplace  to  her,  were 
the  very  perfection  of  God's  gifts,  and  that  they  were 
granted  to  her  that  she  might  be  made  the  most 
perfect  soul  that  ever  lived,  because  she  was  to  be 
the  Mother  of  the  Incarnate  God.* 

And  now  the  fulness  of  time  has  come ;  the  world 
is  to  be  redeemed.  The  same  heavenly  ambassador 
who  had  appeared  to  the  priest  Zachary  in  the  Holy 
of  Holies  is  now  sent  to  the  humble  maiden  in  her 
chamber — engaged  perhaps  in  prayer,  or  just  as  likely 
with  her  needle  or  her  spindle.  In  any  case,  God's 
messenger  found  her  full  of  divine  love  and  saluted 

*  This  blending  of  all  divine  gifts  in  Mary's  soul  includes  her  exemption 
from  Adam's  sin.  The  Angel  Gabriel,  as  we  shall  see,  will  hail  her  as 
"full  of  grace,"  a  title  whose  primary  meaning  is  the  dogma  of  the  Im- 
maculate Conception.  Says  St.  Francis  de  Sales  :  "  God  first  of  all  destined 
for  His  most  holy  Mother  a  favor  worthy  the  love  of  a  Son  who,  being  all 
wise,  all  mighty,  all  good,  wished  to  prepare  a  mother  to  His  liking,"  "and 
therefore  He  willed  His  redemption  to  be  applied  to  her  after  the  manner 
of  a  preserving  remedy,  that  the  sin  which  was  spreading  from  generation 
to  generation  should  not  reach  her.  She  then  was  so  excellently  re- 
deemed, that  though,  when  the  time  came,  the  torrent  of  original  iniquity 
rushed  to  pour  its  unhappy  waves  over  her  conception,  with  as  much  im- 
petuosity as  it  had  done  on  that  of  the  other  daughters  of  Adam;  yet 
when  it  reached  there  it  passed  not  beyond,  but  stopped,  as  did  anciently 
the  Jordan  in  the  time  of  Josue,  and  for  the  same  respect  :  for  this  river 
held  its  stream  in  reverence  for  the  passage  of  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant ; 
and  original  sin  drew  back  its  waters,  revering  and  dreading  the 
presence  of  the  true  Tabernacle  of  the  eternal  covenant."  (The  Love  of 
God>  Book  II.  chap.  vi). 


THE  SON  OF  GOD  BECOMES  MAN. 


59 


her  accordingly  as  "full  of  grace." 
What  amazement  filled  the  humble 
soul  of  Mary  !  She  was  frightened 
at  the  angel's  apparition,  and  dis- 
tressed at  his  praise.  What  kind 
of  visitor  is  this,  and  what  kind  of 
salutation  ?  What  does  it  all  mean  ? 
The  angel  is  a  mighty  being,  but 
he  is  a  gentle  spirit  too,  and  he  re- 
assures the  maiden,  calls  her  famil- 
iarly by  her  name,  and  proceeds  at 
once  to  the  purpose  of  his  embassy  : 
* '  Behold,  thou  shalt  conceive  in  thy 
womb,  and  shalt  bring  forth  a  Son ;, 
and  thou  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus  "; 
and  this  was  followed  by  the  full 
statement  of  the  Advent  of  the 
Messias.  It  is  indeed  the  Messias  J 
Mary  hears  that  she  is  to  become 
the  mother  of  this  great  personage, 
the  Son  of  God  and  the  Saviour  of 
men  ! 

It  is  the  Messias  !  What  an  amaz- 
;  ing  event  !  What  thoughts  of  love, 
joy,  terror,  thanksgiving,  possessed 
-the  soul  of  Mary  at  these  wordsr-^-that  :Jier  womb  should 
be  the  chosen  feeding- bed  for  the 'root -of  Jesse,  from 
which  should  spring  up  the  tree  of  life,  the  Saviour 
of  the  world,  the  Son  of  God  !  How  many  holy  mothers 
in  Israel  had  dreamed  of  this  honor — and  it  had  come 
to  her,  to  Mary  of  Nazareth.  Son  of  God  !  Mother 
of  the  Son  of  God !  But  of  all  her  questionings,  the 
one  which  first  found  utterance  was  her  candid  long- 
ing to  save  her  cherished  state  of  virginity,  a  state 
of  life  to. which  God  had  plainly  led  her  from  her 


"  THE    WORD    WAS   >IADE    FLESH." 

And  in  the  sixth  month  the  Angel 
Gabriel  was  sent  from  God  into  a  city  of 
Galilee,  called  Nazareth,  to  a  virgin  es- 
poused to  a  man  whose  name  was  Joseph, 
'of  the  house  of  David;  and  the  virgin's 
name  was  Mary.  And  the  Angel  being 
come  in,  said  unto  her :  Hail,  full  of  grace, 
the  Lord  is  with  thee :  Blessed  art .  thou 
among  women.  Who,  having  heard,  was 
troubled  at  his  saying,  and  thought  with 
herself  what  manner  of  salutation  this 
should  be.  And  the  Angel  said  to  her: 
Fear  notj  Mary,  for  thou  hast  found  grace 
with  God.  Behold,  thou  shalt  conceive  in 
thy  womb,  and  shalt  bring  forth  a  Son ; 
and  thou  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus.  He 
shall  be  great,  and  shall  be  called  the  Son 
of  the  Most  High  :  and  the  Lord  God  shall 
give  unto  him  the  throne  of  David  his 
father  :  and  he  shall  reign  in  the  house  of 
Jacob  for  ever  :  And  of  his  kingdom  there 
shall  be  no  end.  And  Mary  said  to  the 
angel :  How  shall  this  be  done,  because  I 
know  not  man  ?  And  the  Angel  answering, 
said  to  her :  The  Holy  Ghost  shall  come 
upon  thee  ;  and  the  power  of  the  Most 
High  shall  overshadow  thee.  And  there- 
fore also  the  Holy  which  shall  be  born"  of 
thee  shall  be  called  the  Son  of  God.  And 
behold,  thy  cousin  Elizabeth,  she  hath  also 
conceived  a  son  in  her  old  age  :  and  this  is 
the  sixth  month  with  her  that  is  called 
barren  :  because  no  word  shall  be  impossi- 
ble with  God.  -  And  Mary  said  :  Behold 
the  handmaid  of  the  Lord  :  be  it  done  to 
me  according  to  thy  word.  And  the  Angel 
departed  from  her. 

AND"  THE  WORD  WAS  MADE  FLESH,  AND 
DWELT  AMONG  US. 


6o 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


childhood's  days.  "Then  said  Mary  unto  the 
angel :  How  shall  this  be,  since  I  know  not 
man?"  Even  her  espoused  husband  Joseph,  it 
had  been  agreed  between  them,  should  be  to 
her  but  a  reflex  of  her  own  virginity,  all  carnal 
union,  by  divine  inspiration,  totally  renounced. 
Then  the  angel  calmed  her  shrinking  suscepti- 
-*N  bilities,  and  revealed  to  her  pure  soul  the  mys- 
tery of  her  chaste  motherhood :  ' '  The  Holy 
Ghost  shall  come  upon  thee,  and  the  power  of 
the  Most  High  shall  overshadow  thee,  and  there- 
fore the  Holy  [One]  that  shall  be  born  of  thee 
shall  be  called  the  Son  of  God." 

Here,  then,  God  works  by  His  Holy  Spirit. 
"the  Holy  Ghost  shall  It  was  He  who  had  spoken  by  the  prophets  in 
power UofOIthehMos^ndHigh  foretelling  this  wondrous  event,  and  who  in 
(Luke  iover)shadow  thee"  primordial  creation  was  breathed  in  fruitful  power 
over  the  deep.  The  Spirit  Creator  penetrates 
Mary  with  the  Deity,  and  generates  the  new 
creation  in  her  chaste  womb,  arousing  it  into 
divine  life  and  fecundating  it  with  divine  fruitful- 
ness.  The  first  Adam,  St.  Luke  tells  us  (iii. 
38),  "was  of  God."  But  he  was  of  God's  power 
and  love  alone,  and  could  sin  and  did  sin  against 
his  Maker.  The  new  Adam  shall  be  of  God's 
very  nature ;  and  shall  show  forth  the  soul  and 
body  of  man  under  the  personal  dominion  of  God, 
sinless  and  incapable  of  sin,  yet  truly  man.  It  is 
this  amazing  mystery  that  was  first  revealed  to  Mary 
and  that  she  instantly  believed  on  the  word  of  the  di- 
vine ambassador,  demanding  no  sign,  for  she  was 
under  a  spell  of  faith  far  passing  the  need  of  signs. 
But  the  angel  gave  her  a  sign,  and  one  closely  joined 
with  the  conception  of  the  Saviour.  "And  behold, 
thy  cousin  Elizabeth,  she  hath  also  conceived  a  son 


THE  SON  OF  GOD  BECOMES  MAN.  61 

in  her  old  age  :  and  this  is  the  sixth  month  with  her 
who  was  called  barren."  The  angel  might  well  add, 
that  "with  God  nothing  shall  be  impossible,"  for  he 
was  witness  no  less  than  messenger  of  God's  most 
stupendous  work — the  union  in  the  bosom  of  Mary  of 
the  divine  and  human  natures  in  one  divine  person. 
And  now  Mary's  mind  was  clear.  God  had  sought 
her  out — a  marvellous  mystery,  but  evidently  a  fact, — 
His  purpose  with  her  is  the  Messias.  To  yield 
to  God's  will  instantly  and  instinctively  is  Mary's 
whole  life.  But  there  were  some  pangs  of  agony  in 
her  soul  as  she  yielded  :  she  not  only  loved  God, 
she  loved  Joseph,  she  loved  her  kindred  ;  and  can 
she  become  a  mother  without  explaining  her  divine 
espousals  with  the  Holy  Spirit  to  her  earthly  spouse 
and  to  her  relatives  and  friends  ?  But  how  can  she 
explain  her  pregnancy  to  Joseph?  Will  he  believe 
this  unheard-of  tale  upon  her  word  only  ?  The  bare 
thought  of  being  suspected  of  unfaithfulness  to  Joseph 
— cursed,  stoned  to  deatk  as  an  unclean  woman ! 
This  was  an  awful  dread  ;  and  it  was  not  the  only 
terror  that  crept  into  her  soul,  for  we  may  not  doubt 
that  God,  whose  ambassador  had  treated  with  Mary 
as  if  she  were  queen  of  earth,  and  of  earth  that  had 
been  made  equal  to  heaven,  gave  her  at  the  same 
time  a  vision  of  Calvary  and  of  her  motherhood  of 
sorrows.  But  she  was  well  chosen  for  her  office  of 
Mother  of  the  Redeemer,  capable  of  casting  her  lot 
wholly  with  the  divine  will  for  man's  salvation,  glad 
of  the  pain  no  less  than  of  the  joy.  "And  Mary 
said :  Behold  the  handmaid  of  the  L,ord ;  be  it  done 
unto  me  according  to  thy  word.  And  the  Word  was 
made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us.  And  the  angel  de- 
parted from  her."  She  does  not  meddle  with  times 
and  moments,  and  she  does  not  search  into  other 


62  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

secrets.  She  leaves  all  to  God  by  total  abandonment 
to  the  divine  will.  She  neither  hurries  on  nor  lags 
behind. 

And  thus  the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and  thus  He 
began  to  dwell  among  us;  it  was  the  reception  of  the 
divine  goodness  by  the  highest  faith,  love,  and  obedi- 
ence on  the  part  of  men,  represented  by  Mary  of 
Nazareth. 

CHAPTER   VII. 

MARY'S  VISIT  TO  ELIZABETH. — THE  MAGNIFICAT, 
Luke  i.  39-56. 

HAD  all  this  taken  place  after  Mary's  marriage  to 
Joseph  she  would,  perhaps,  have  been  able  to  over- 
come her  lowliness  so  far  as  to  pour  out  to  him  her 
inmost  thoughts ;  for  a  soul  burdened  with  so  great 
a  mystery  must  needs  have  a  familiar  confidant.  But 
the  angel's  news  about  Elizabeth  pointed  out  Mary's 
confidant — a  woman,  and  .one,  like  herself,  in  preg- 
nancy, and,  yet  more,  as  in  her  own  case,  pregnant  by 
.a  miracle  of  God's  power  and  love.  Such  a  one  can 
understand  Mary,  and  so  to  Eliza- 


THE     MEETING  OF   MARY  AND   ELIZABETH.         .         -  -  ^,  . 

And  Mary  rising  up  in  those  days,  went  beth  Mary  hastens.  The  distance 
into  the  mountainous  country  with  haste, 
into  a  city  of  Juda  :  And  she  entered  into 
the  house  of  Zachary,  and  saluted  Eliza- 
beth. And  it  came  to  pass,  that  when 
Elizabeth  heard  the  salutation  of  Mary, 
the  infant  leaped  in  her  womb :  and 
Elizabeth  was  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost : 
And  she  cried  out  with  a  loud  voice,  and 
said :  Blessed  art  thou  among  women  ; 
and  blessed  is  the  fruit  of  thy  womb.  And 
whence  is  this  to  me,  that  the  mother  of 
my  Lord  should  came  to  me  ?  For  behold, 
as  soon  as  the  voice  of  thy  salutation 
sounded  in  my  ears,  the  infant  in  my 
womb  leaped  for  joy.  And  blessed  art 
thou  that  hast  believed  ;  because  those 
things  shall  be  accomplished  that  were 
spoken  to  thee  by  the  Lord. 


between  Nazareth  and  the  home  of 
Zachary  measures  nearly  ninety 
miles,  forming  a  journey  over  hills 
and  through  valleys  of  at  least  four 
days,  bringing  the  Mother  of  Jesus 
well  south  of  Jerusalem  to  the  priest- 
ly city  of  Hebron. 

It  was  not  hard  for  Mary  to  find 
proper  escort  for  her  visit,  as  cara- 
vans were  always  going  towards 
Jerusalem  and  the  south.  But  we 


MARY'S  VISIT  TO  ELIZABETH. 


HILL  COUNTRY  OF  JUDEA. 


do    not   know   who  journeyed 

with  her  ;  we  know  that  when 

she    entered    that    family   she 

was    overflowing   with    divine 

grace,    whose    glory,    as  ,  she 

saluted  Elizabeth,  shone  forth 

with  light   divine.     Mary  was 

to  the   aged  woman  what  the 

vision  of  the  angel  had   been 

to   her    husband   in   the  Holy 

of  Holies.     Since  her  miracu- 

lous conception  of  the  forerun- 

ner Of  God's  anointed   Eliza- 

beth had  known  that  He  must 

soon  appear,  but  she  had   not 

the   faintest   notion    where   or 

how.     The  sight  of  Mary  revealed  it  all,  for  the  Christ- 

bearer  was  beaming  in  every  loving  feature  of  Mary's 

face,  and  quivered  in  the  tones  of    her  voice  as   she 

saluted  her  kinswoman.     The  dignity  of  Mary  as  the 

Mother    of   God    made     man,    the    promises    of    the 

angel    to   her,    and    the    relation,  of   the    two    babes 

to   each   other,  all   was  revealed.      And    not    only   to 

herself  was  this  light  given   and   this  heavenly  secret 

unfolded,  but   also   to   her  unborn  son.     As  Elizabeth 

was  the  first  woman   to  acclaim  the  Saviour   and  His 

mother  with  the  voice   of  divine  worship,  so  was  the 

son    in   her  womb    the    first    man    to    proclaim    Him 

now,  though  yet   unborn,   and   again  upon  the  banks 

of    the    Jordan     amid     the     eloquent     tones    of     his 

penance-preaching.      Just    as    sleeping  nature  awakes 

and    smiles    and   worships    at    the   first    rays    of  the 

morning    sun,    so   did  John   awake    into    reason   and 

joy    and   adoration  at  the   coming  of   the   Mother  of 

His  Lord.     "For  behold,  *'  cried  Elizabeth,  "as  soon 


THE    SONG   OF    MARY. 

And  Mary  said  :  My  soul  doth  magnify 
the  Lord,  and  my  spirit  hath  rejoiced  in 
God  my  Saviour,  because  he  hath  regarded 
the  humility  of  his  handmaid  ;  for  behold 
from  henceforth  all  generations  shall  call 
me  blessed.  Because  he  that  is  mighty 
hath  done  great  things  to  me,  and  holy  is 
his  name.  And  his  mercy  is  from  genera- 
tion unto  generations,  to  them  that  fear 
him.  He  hath  showed  might  in  his  arm  ; 
lie  hath  scattered  the  proud  in  the  conceit 
of  their  heart.  He  hath  put  down  the 
mighty  from  their  seat,  and  hath  exalted 
the  humble.  He  hath  filled  the  hungry 
with  good  things:  and  the  rich  he  hath 
sent  empty  away.  He  hath  received  Israel 
his  servant,  being  mindful  of  his  mercy. 
As  he  spoke  to  our  fathers,  to  Abraham 
and  to  his  seed  for  ever.  And  Mary 
abode  with  her  about  three  months :  and 
she  returned  to  her  own  house. 


64  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

as  the  voice  of  thy  salutation  sound- 
ed in  my  ears,  the  infant,  in  my 
womb  leaped  for  joy." 

How  very  great  was  Mary's  own 
joy  to  receive  the  first  congratula- 
tions upon  her  divine  maternity 
from  both  the  Precursor  and  his 
mother!  She  sang  her  jubilation 
in  her  beautiful  canticle,  the  Mag- 
nificat.  It  is  little  to  say  that  the 
Magnificat  is  revealed,  for  Mary 
was  ever  in  touch  with  God 
since  she  began  to  think  and  live 
and  speak  absorbed  in  the  divinity 
of  her  Son.  However  deep  is 
Mary's  happiness  as  a  woman,  its  utterance  is  that  of 
a  queen,  the  spouse  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  the  Mag- 
nificat we  hear  a  voice  whose  tones  are  like  the  music 
of  heaven.  Mary  with  one  concentrated  aspiration  of 
her  soul  both  praises  God  and  thanks  Him  as  if  she 
stood  proxy  for  the  whole  human  race.  Her  soul  and 
spirit,  her  consciousness  of  the  divine  immanence  and 
her  abounding  love  overflow,  calm  and  majestic,  in  a 
celestial  hymn  of  thanks  and  adoration.  The  more 
ecstatically  does  she  thank  God  for  His  Son,  because 
she  can  represent  the  masses  of  the  people  ;  she,  a  low- 
ly maiden,  humble  member  of  an  unknown  household, 
affianced  bride  of  a  country  carpenter,  has  been  selected 
before  the  queens  of  the  world  to  fill  its  highest 
dignity.  "  For  behold  from  henceforth  all  generations 
shall  call  me  blessed.  Because  He  that  is  mighty 
hath  done  great  things  to  me :  and  holy  is  His  name. 
And  His  mercy  is  on  them  that  fear  Him  from  genera- 
tion to  generation."  Although  she  knows  that  she 
is  but  the  material  from  which  has  been  fashioned 


THE  MAGNIFICAT.  65 

the  masterpiece  of  the  Divine  Artist,  she  is  also  con- 
scious of  her  liberty  and  of  the  force  of  divine  grace 
within  her.  Her  future  and  universal  glory  is  clear 
before  her  prophetic  gaze.  Again,  as  a  child  of 
Israel,  she  glories  in  the  triumph  of  God's  people ; 
she  loves  her  nation,  she  is  glad  of  its  coming  glory : 
' '  He  hath  put  down  the  mighty  from  their  seat,  and 
exalted  the  humble.  He  hath  filled  the  hungry  with 
good  things,  and  the  rich  He  hath  sent  empty  away." 

The  haughty  Pharisees  are  rejected,  Caesar  and 
Herod  are  rejected.  Men  and  women  who  are  thought 
nothing  of  have  been  chosen  as  the  first  to  see 
the  realization  of  the  divine  promises.  The  Song 
of  Mary  and  that  of  Zachary,  the  triumphant  acclaim 
of  Elizabeth,  ring  out  with  the  dominant  note  of 
the  Gospel:  He  that  is  nothing  with  himself  and  with 
men  shall  become  everything  with  God.  Before  God 
will  impart  Himself  and  His  love  to  us,  we  must 
show  Him  utter  self-abasement.  Haughty  power  is 
done ;  the  dominion  of  tyranny  over  men's  souls  is 
ended,  however  it  may  continue  to  torture  their 
bodies.  The  infinite  God  lavishes  His  love  upon  the 
lowly,  and  that  love  is  strongest  in  the  yielding  virtues 
of  humility  and  kindliness  and  poverty  and  forgive- 
ness. These  are  the  qualities  which  from  henceforth 
shall  be  set  by  God  as  the  test  of  the  true  Israelite. 

The  Magnificat  opens  the  windows  of  this  chosen 
spirit,  and  allows  us  our  only  full  view  of  that  throne- 
room  of  our  King.  How  tender  the  love,  how  un- 
affected the  humility  of  Mary  !  How  spontaneously 
Hebrew  is  her  poem,  clothed  in  the  lofty  strains  of  the 
ancient  songs  of  God's  people  ! — often  and  lovingly  re- 
cited by  this  meditative  soul.  How  resistless  the  flow 
of  that  divine  melody  which  swelled  the  pure  bosom 
of  Mary,  and  overflows  upon  our  hearts  in  the  Mag- 


66 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


nificat!  She  does  not  speak,  she  cannot  speak ;  she 
sings.  And  the  genius  of  the  Hebrew  tongue,  like 
that  of  the  race  itself,  easily  passed  from  words  spoken 
to  poems  chanted,  when  the  soul  winged  its  upward 
flight  in  prayer.  In  view  of  all  this  must  we  not 
wonder  that  Mary  should  have  been  classed  by  many 
dissident  Christians  as  an  ordinary  woman,  a  mere 
necessary  and  vulgar- minded  intermediary  in  God's 
work  of  redemption  ? 

Mary  sojourned  in  the  house  of  Zachary  till  the 
birth  and  circumcision  of  John.  She  there  enjoyed 
the  sweetest  comfort  of  communion  with  perfect  ser-- 
vants  of  God,  as  well  as  the  joy  of  ministering  to  her 
aged  cousin  during  the  pains  of  labor  and  childbed. 
And  after  the  Precursor  had  been  born  and  the  fes- 
tivities of  such  occasions  celebrated,  Mary  returned 
to  Nazareth,  to  await  God's  will  in  the  completion  of 
her  own  motherhood  and  the  birth  of  her  Son. 
But  the  critical  question  of  how  Joseph  was  to  learn 
all  that  had  happened  was  still  unanswered. 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  MARY  AND  JOSEPH. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    MARRIAGE    OF     MARY    AND    JOSEPH. 

Matt.  i.  18-25 ;  Luke  i:  27. 

Upon  the  re- 
turn of  Mary 
to  Nazareth, 
Joseph  perceiv- 
ed her  condition 
to  be  that  of 
pregnancy.  He 
had  known 
neither  the  visit 
of  the  angel  nor  the  revelations  at  the  home  of  Zachary. 
Having  been  ignorant  of  all,  he  was  now  thrown  into  a 
state  of  misery  beyond  words  to  describe.  Nor  did 
Mary  relieve  him — perhaps  she  was  hindered  from  doing 
so  by  a  supernatural  admonition,  perhaps  by  her  own 
shrinking  humility  and  timidity  to  disclose  so  unheard- 
of  a  marvel.  Joseph's  soul  was  a  prey  to  indescribable 
agony.  He  dared  not  doubt  the  chastity  of  his 
affianced  spouse,  to  whom  God  had  led  him  by  a 
love  so  pure  as  to  be  an  inspiration  from  heaven; 
yet  the  terrible  reality  was  before  his  eyes.  He  was 
horrified  at  the  undeniable  physical  certainty  of 
Mary's  pregnancy,  and  yet  his  soul  was  powerless  to 
believe  her  guilty  of  the  awful  crime  which  this  in- 
dicated. He  dared  not  even  ask  her  to  explain — • 
her  calm  glances  pierced  him  like  fiery  arrows  of  re- 
proach— and  yet  there  she  was,  a  pregnant  woman. 
In  this  state  of  mind  he  could  not  corrfplete  the  es- 
pousals and  take  her  to  his  home ;  he  was  just  as 
unable  to  denounce  her  to  the  magistrates.  He 
determined  to  adopt  a  middle  course.  He  would 


68  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

privately  give  her  a  release  from  their  engagement, 
assigning  no  cause,  and  leave  to  Providence  the  clear- 
ing up  of  this  excruciating  mystery.  St.  Matthew 
briefly  describes  the  hard  trial  of  Joseph  and  its  issue : 
"Now  the  generation  of  Christ  was  in  this  wise. 
When  as  his  mother  Mary  was  espoused  to  Joseph, 
before  they  came  together,  she  was  found  with  child, 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Whereupon  Joseph  her  husband, 
being  a  just  man,  and  not  willing  publicly  to  ex- 
pose her,  was  minded  to  put  her  away  privately." 
He  could  not  commit  to  human  authority  the  decision 
of  a  case  which  he  himself — of  all  men  the  most 
vitally  concerned — could  only  refer  as  a  deep  mys- 
tery to  the  judgment  of  God. 

As  to  Mary,  this  was  the  first  of  the  many 
sorrows  which  her  high  dignity  compelled  her  to  bear. 
Throughout  her  whole  life  the  joys  of  motherhood 
and  its  pangs  were  seldom  separated.  If  Joseph  should 
repudiate  her,  she,  conscious  of  absolute  purity,  would 
become  an  outcast  among  her  sex,  and  her  infant, 
the  Son  of  the  Most  High,  would  be  brought  into  the 
world  under  the  deadly  stigma  of  bastardy.  Should 
she  disclose  her  secret,  she  did  not  know  if  Joseph 
would  believe  her.  And  was  it  not  Heaven's  secret? 
Who  knows  but  that  her  lips  were  sealed  by  the  same 
power  which  had  made  her  virgin  womb  fruitful. 
But  what  an  agony  that  enforced  silence  must  have 
been  to  her,  and  how  heroic  Mary's  confidence  in 
God  to  have  been  able  to  maintain  it ! 

Yet  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  heart  of 
Joseph  was  tried  more  painfully  than  Mary's,  for 
the  mystery  was  all  revealed  to  her  and  was  all  hidden 
from  him.  To  him  the  woe  was  overwhelming.  God, 
therefore,  chose  to  set  forth  His  will  not  to  Mary 
but  to  Joseph,  and  that  by  means  of  a  vision.  One 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  MARY  AND  JOSEPH. 


69 


night  when  he  had  fallen  asleep,  wearied  with  grief 
and  doubt,  the  angel  of  the  Lord  was  sent  to  him 
and  spoke  to  him  as  in  a  dream. 

The  angel  came  to  him  and  saluted  him  with 
the  great  title  of  Son  of  David,  called  Mary  his  wife, 
and  said,  "  that  which  is  conceived 
in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  The 
mystery  is  thus  given  to  him  to  un- 
derstand, and  that  by  a  special 
ambassador  from  heaven.  Nor  is 
this  all.  His  own  fatherly  juris- 
diction over  Mary's  Son  is  dis- 
tinctly announced  :  ' '  Thou  shalt 
call  His  name  Jesus.  For  He  shall 
save  His  people  from  their  sins." 
How  happy  life  seemed  when  Joseph 
awoke  and  realized  what  had  hap- 
pened to  him !  What  a  relief! 
What  a  heavenly  consolation  !  How 
sincere  is  his  outpouring  of  thanksgiving  !  How  dear 
is  Mary  to  God,  must  not  Joseph  have  exclaimed, 
since  He  sends  an  angel  to  me  to  restore  her  to 
her  original  place  in  my  affections!  How  good  is 
God  to  me  to  not  only  clear  away  the  fogs  that  ob- 
scured my  love  for  my  promised  wife,  but  to  make 
me  the  husband  of  the  spouse  of  the  Holy  Ghost ! 

All  is  now  clear  before  the  manly  heart  of  the  young 
carpenter  of  Nazareth.  He  is  to  be  the  husband  of  Mary 
in  the  legal  sense  as  well  as  in  that  of  true  marital 
love,  though  not  in  the  carnal  sense ;  his  office  being 
to  solace  Mary  with  a  perfect  love;  to  protect  her 
good  name  and  the  legitimacy  of  Jesus ;  to  reverence 
her  as  the  temple  of  the  Most  High  ;  to  guard  and 
support  her  Son  as  if  He  were  his  own :  and  all  this 
is  made  known  to  him  as  God's  will,  by  the  message 


ST.    JOSEPH'S    VISION. 

But  while  he  thought  on  these  things,  be- 
hold the  Angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  to 
him  in  his  sleep,  saying :  Joseph,  son  of 
David,  fear  not  to  take  unto  thee  Mary  thy 
wife,  for  that  which  is  conceived  in  her 
is  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  she  shall  bring 
forth  a  son  :  and  thou  shalt  call  his  name 
Jesus.  For  he  shall  save  his  people  from 
their  sins.  Now  all  this  was  done  that 
it  might  be  fulfilled  which  the  Lord  spoke 
by  the  prophet,  saying :  Behold  a  virgin 
shall  be  with  child,  and  bring  forth  a  son, 
and  they  shall  call  his  name  Emmanuel, 
which  being  interpreted  is,  God  with  us. 
And  Joseph  rising  up  from  sleep,  did  as 
the  Angel  of  the  Lord  had  commanded 
him,  and  took  unto  him  his  wife  And  he 
knew  her  not  till  she  brought  forth  her 
first-born  son :  and  he  called  his  name 
Jesus. 


?o  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

of  an  angel.  Gladly  does  he  accept  this  double 
mission  of  marital  love  and  angelic  chastity.  "And 
Joseph  rising  up  from  sleep,  did  as  the  angel  of  the 
Lord  had  commanded  him,  and  took  unto  him  his 
wife.  And  he  knew  her  not  till  she  brought  forth 
her  first-born  Son." 

The  attempt  of  anti-Christian  writers  to  make  out 
that  these  last  words  indicate  that  Mary  afterwards 
bore  other  children,  which  children  were  Joseph's,  is 
futile.  The  term  "first-born  son"  was  that  applied 
to  him  "who  first  opened  the  womb,"  for  such  a 
one  was  by  the  law  to  be  dedicated  to  God ;  and 
even  if  he  remained  the  only  son,  he  was  still  named 
the  first-born.  St.  Jerome  in  noticing  this  rule  also 
shows  that  the  expression  ' '  he  knew  her  not  until 
she  brought  forth  her  first-born  son,"  is  a  mode  of 
speaking  peculiar  to  the  Hebrew  language.  "  Noe 
sent  forth  a  raven,  which  did  not  return  till  the  waters 
were  dried  up  on  the  earth  ";  that  is,  did  not  return 
at  all  (Gen.  viii.  6,  7).  And  in  Isaias  God  says:  "I 
am  till  you  grow  old"  (xlvi.  4).  And  in  I.  Macha- 
bees  :  *  *  They  went  up  to  Mount  Sion  with  joy,  and 
offered  holocausts,  because  not  one  of  them  was  slain 
till  they  had  returned  in  peace  "—that  is,  not  slain 
at  all.  And  other  passages  bear  out  the  immemorial 
and  universal  Catholic  belief  that  Mary  was  always  a 
virgin. 

The  difficulty  which  arises  from  the  naming  of 
"James,  arid  Joseph,  and  Simon,  and  Jude,"  as  being 
the  "  brothers  of  the  Lord  "  (Matt.  xiii.  55),  is  easily 
explained.  They  were  sons  of  Mary's  sister,  the  wife 
of  Cleophas,  otherwise  Alpheus.  Now,  it  was  the 
Jewish  custom  to  name  first  cousins  brothers,  es- 
pecially where  one  of  them  was  an  only  son ;  and 
thus  these  sons  .of  Mary's  sister  were  styled  brothers 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  MARY  AND  JOSEPH.  71 

of  Jesus,  who  was  Mary's  only  son.  A  very  conclu- 
sive proof  of  this  is  drawn  from  comparing  passages 
in  St.  Paul  and  St.  Mark.  The  James  here  in  ques- 
tion was  certainly  James  the  Lesser — that  is  to  say, 
the*  younger  of  the  two  Apostles  of  that  name,  for 
St.  Paul  means  him  when  in  Galatians  (i.  19)  he 
says  he  saw  James,  the  Lord's  brother,  in  Jerusalem, 
for  he  could  not  in  that  passage  have  meant  James  the 
Greater,  or  elder,  because  James  the  Greater  was  un- 
doubtedly the  son  of  Zebedee  and  not  related  to  our 
Lord  at  all.  Well,  then,  it  being  established  that 
the  James  who  was  the  Lord's  "brother"  was  James 
the  Lesser,  we  are  made  certain  by  St.  Mark  (xv.  40) 
that  he  was  the  son  of  Mary  the  wife  of  Cleophas : 
* '  Among  whom  [the  holy  women]  was  Mary  Magda- 
lene, and  Mary  the  mother  of  James  the  Less,  and 
of  Joseph,  and  Salome."  Simon  also  is  named  as 
one  of  the  Lord's  brothers,  and  of  him  Hegesippus, 
who  wrote  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  affirms 
that  he  was  the  second  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  and  he 
calls  him  the  Lord's  cousin.  If  any  other  evidence 
were  wanting  to  secure  demonstration,  it  would  be 
the  act  of  Jesus  Himself  on  the  cross  in  confiding 
His  mother  to  John  as  to  an  adopted  son.  If  James 
or  Jude  or  Simon  were  Mary's  own  children,  this  could 
not  have  been.  If  Mary  had  actual  sons  besides  Jesus 
and  these  were  His  own  apostles,  Jesus  would  not 
have  confided  her  to  an  adopted  son  and  thus  bitterly 
affronted  them  and  injured  her. 

It  was  not  fitting  that  such  a  son  as  Jesus  should 
be  compelled  to  share  His  mother's  love  with  others. 
He  absorbed  the  entire  motherhood  of  Mary. 

The  union  of  Joseph  and  Mary  in  uncarnal  wed- 
lock is  the  beginning  of  that  marvel  of  our  concupis- 
cent manhood,  the  celibate  priesthood  of  the  Church 


72  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

of  Christ.  Love  for  Jesus  and  for  His  living  taber- 
nacle, His  mother,  was  to  Joseph  the  passion  of 
passions.  As  he  served  Jesus  and  loved  Mary  in 
severe  chastity,  so  do  the  members  of  the  priesthood 
serve  the  ever-present  Christ  and  His  living  taber- 
nacle, which  is  His  Church,  in  a  spirit  of  joyful  self- 
immolation,  being  so  fascinated  with  this  holy  love 
that  they  forget  the  natural  claims  of  flesh  and  blood. 
Understand  the  virginal  spouseship  of  Nazareth,  and 
you  have  the  key  to  clerical  celibacy. 


NAZARETH  FROM  THE  CAMPANILE  OF  THE 
CHURCH  OF  THE  ANNUNCIATION. 


JESUS  IS  BORN  A  T  BETHLEHEM. 


73 


PLACE  OF  THE  NATIVITY. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

JESUS    IS    BORN    AT    BETHLEHEM. 
Matt.  i.  25 ;  Luke  ii.  1-20. 

THE  time  for  the  birth  of  Jesus  is  approaching, 
and  the  happy  union  of  souls  between  Mary  and 
Joseph  is  followed  by  the  necessary  practical  arrange- 
ments for  that  great  event. 

God's  providence  now  intervened ;  instead  of  brr.:g- 
ing  forth  her  child  at  Nazareth,  it  was  the  divine  will 
that  Mary  should  do  so  at  Bethlehem.  One  reason 
for  this  was  to  fulfil  the  ancient  prophecy  which 
named  that  city  as  the  birth-place  of  the  Messias.  An- 
other was  that  Mary  might  be  saved  from  suspicion; 
for  although  a  child  conceived  during  the  time  of  es- 
pousals was  not  illegitimate  according  to  the  Jewish 
law,  yet  it  would  have  been  a  deep  humiliation  if 
Jesus  had  been  born  before  the  lapse  of  nine  months 
of  completed  wedlock.  In  Bethlehem  they  were  total 
strangers  and  there  was  no  one  there  to  calculate 
dates.  Therefore  did  God  at  this  time  bring  about 
the  taking  of  the  census  of  Palestine  by  the  Roman 
authorities,  which  brought  the  Holy  Family  with  the 
other  members  of  David's  house  to  his  little  city,  sit- 
uated a  long  journey  southward  from  Nazareth. 

The   Emperor   Augustus  had  at  this  time   decreed 


74 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


the  taking  of  a  universal  census  and  the  systematic 
taxation  of  his  empire,  one  measure  being  necessary 
to  make  the  other  a  success.  The  moment  was  favor- 
able. For  the  first  time  in  ages  the  city  of  Rome 
enjoyed  peace  throughout  its  entire  dominion,  and  the 
temple  of  Janus,  the  Roman  war-god,  was  shut. 
Augustus  had  touched  the  highest  point  of  his  glory 
and  might  well  begin  to  perfect  the  organization  of 
his  vast  empire.  The  boundaries  of  the  various 
provinces  had  already  been  fixed  and  published  pur- 
suant to  a  decree  of  Julius  Caesar  made  forty-four  years 
previously.  This  census,  therefore,  would  complete 
the  systematic  knowledge  of  the  empire  and  its  in- 
habitants, and  facilitate  the  levying  of  taxes.  Tacitus 
and  other  Roman  chroniclers  tell  us  of  what  must  have 
been  the  written  summary  of  this  enrollment,  a  docu- 
ment made  in  the  handwriting  of  the  emperor,  and 
after  his  death  read,  to  the  Roman  Senate.  That 
Palestine  was  included  in  it  there  can  be  no  manner 
of  doubt.  Tertullian,  who  wrote  in  the  second  Chris- 
tian century,  appeals  to  public  documents  of  his  day 
as  evidence  of  the  census  in  that  country  ;  and  his 
testimony  is  backed  by  that  of  competent  pagan  wit- 
nesses who  wrote  not  long  after  the  date  of  our 
Saviour's  birth  as  assigned  by  St.  L,uke. 

In  thus  choosing  his  city  of  lineage  for  his  legal 
domicile  rather  than  his  place  of  birth  or  residence, 
Joseph  availed  himself  of  his  privilege  as  an  Israelite. 
The  entire  civil  structure  of  the  Jewish  nationality  was 
based  upon  the  distinction  of  tribes  and  families.  And 
Mary  had  her  place  in  this  choice,  for,  being  as  is 
more  than  likely  without  brothers,  she  ranked  in  pub- 
lic registers  equally  with  male  heirs  in  other  families. 
Furthermore,  it  is  historically  certain  that  the  Roman 
DAVID,  tax  fell  upon  women  no  less  than  men — another  reason 


JESUS  IS  BORN  A  T  BETHLEHEM.  75 

for  Mary's  enrollment.  But  the  supreme  reason  is, 
that  God  would  show  by  this  providential  journey  to 
Bethlehem  and  the  birth  of  the  Messias  there  the 
descent  of  Jesus  from  King  David. 

What  was  the  precise  date  of  this  enrollment,  and 
therefore  of  our  Saviour's  birth  ?  St.  L,uke  says  that 
"this  enrollment  was  first  made  by  Cyrinus,  the 
governor  of  Syria,"  Does  he  mean  Quirinus?  There 
was  such  a  man  then  in  office  in  Palestine,  only  he 
was  not  governor  but  questor,  or  tax  superintendent, 
of  Syria.  Many  think  St.  Luke  does  mean  this 
official,  for  as  the  census  was  taken  with  a  view  to 
taxation,  Quirinus,  who  was  high  in  the  favor  of 
Augustus,  would  naturally  be  given  charge  of  it. 

The  distance  to  Bethlehem  from  Nazareth  is  about 
eighty  miles — a  long  and  painful  road  for  a  woman 
near  her  confinement.  But  in  the  Hast  travelling  is 
not  hurried  and  the  virtue  of  hospitality  is  religious- 
ly practised  in  favor  of  travellers.  Nor  can  we  be- 
lieve that  the  mother  of  Jesus  suffered  from  the  usual 
infirmities  of  pregnancy,  for  her  maternity  was  every 
way  miraculous.  And  what  would  not  her  soul,  ever 
in  contact  with  the  soul  of  Jesus  in  her  bosom,  be 
willing  to  suffer,  and  how  easily  would  it  not  master 
the  bodily  weakness  of  her  condition  ?  Nor  can  we 
imagine  a  more  perfect  solace  for  every  ill  than  the 
company  of  her  husband.  Filled  with  thoughts  of  the 
divine  plan  about  her  Infant  and  conversing  happily 
with  Joseph,  Mary  journeyed  courageously  forward 
to  the  spot  named  by  the  prophets  of  God  as  the 
place  of  birth  of  her  Son/the  Saviour  of  the  world. 
As  they  neared  and  entered  the  land  of  J.uda  she 
was  refreshed  with  the  memorials  of  Rachel,  of  Booz, 
of  Ruth,  of  David,  which  were  everywhere  to  be  met 
with.  They  all  spoke  to  her  soul  in  salutation,  in 


76 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


encouragement,  in  joyful  recognition  of  her  Son. 
And  that  Son  was  not  dumb  to  His  mother's  loving 
spirit,  engaging  her  with  divine  words  in  heavenly 
intercourse.  Every  step  she  took  the  Maiden-Mother 
knew  was  a  step  towards  the  redemption  of  man- 
kind. 

On  arriving  at  Bethlehem  the  Holy  Family  found 
the  little  city  swarming  with  people,  like  themselves, 
come  to  the  place  of  enrollment.  The  first  arrivals 
overflowed  the  inns  and  every  other 
lodging  that  was  available.  After 
anxious  inquiry,  Joseph  and  Mary 
must  be  content  with  an  inn  stable, 
a  miserable  lodging  at  best,  and 
how  much  worse  for  a  woman  like 
Mary,  about  to  become  a  mother. 
Such  structures  are  seen  in  the  East 
to-day,  and  they  were  the  same  in 
our  Saviour's  time. 

The  shelter  of  the  Holy  Family 
was  within  a  rude  wall  enclosing  a 
space  in  which  the  horses  or  camels 
or  asses  of  the  travellers  were  usu- 
ally kept.  One  side  of  this  poor 
abode  was  the  wall  itself,,  against 
which  a  shed  was  built,  a  rough 
stable,  without  windows,  the  door 
opening  on  the  stable  yard.  The 
humbler  sort  of  travellers  often 
made  this  a  lodging  for  both  them- 
selves and  their  beasts,  especially 
in  bad  weather,  forming  a  primitive 
company,  and  for  the  human  mem- 
bers not  a  very  agreeable  one.  If  the  yard  were 
backed  by  a  rocky  hill,  the  little  stables  were  caves 


THE    BIRTH    OF    JESUS. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  in  those  days 
there  went  out  a  decree  from  Caesar  Augus- 
tus, that  the  whole  world  should  be  en- 
rolled. This  enrolling  was  first  made  by 
Cyrinus  the  governor  of  Syria.  And  all 
went  to  be  enrolled,  every  one  into  his  own 
city.  And  Joseph  also  went  up  from  Gali- 
lee out  of  the  city  of  Nazareth  into  Judea, 
to  the  city  of  David,  which  is  called  Beth- 
lehem :  because  he  was  of  the  house  and 
family  of  David ;  to  be  enrolled  with  Mary 
his  espoused  V^e>  wno  was  w^1^  cnild. 
And  it  came  to;  pass,  that  when  they  were 
there,  her  days  were  accomplished,  that 
she  should  be  delivered.  And  she  brought 
forth  her  first-born  son,  and  wrapped  him 
up  in  swaddling  clothes,  and  laid  him  in  a 
manger :  because  there  was  no  room  for 
them  in  the  inn.  And  there  were  in  the 
same  country;  shepherds  watching,  and 
keeping  the  night-watches  over  their  flock. 
And  behold  an  angel  of  the  Lord  stood  by 
them,  and  the  brightness  of  God  shone 
round  about  them,  and  they  feared  with  a 
great  fear.  And  the  angel  said  to  them  : 
Fear  not ;  for  behold  1  bring  you  good 
tidings  of  great  joy,  that  shall  be  to  all  the 
people.  For  this  day  is  born  to  you  a 
Saviour,  who  is  Christ  the  Lord,  in  the 
city  of  David.  And  this  shall  be  a  sign 
unto  you.  You  shall  find  the  infant 
wrapped  in  swaddling  clothes,  and  laid  in 
a  manger.  And  suddenly  there  was  with 
the  angel  a  multitude  of  the  heavenly 
army,  praising  God,  and  saying :  Glory  to 
God  in  the  highest  :  and  on  earth  peace  to 
men  of  good  will.  . 


JESUS  IS  BORN  A  T  BETHLEHEM.  77 

dug  out  of  the  hill-side.     In  one  of  these,  or  some  such 
humble  shelter  of  men  and  beasts,  Jesus  was  born. 

Here  it  was  that  Mary  became  a  mother,  first  looked 
upon  the  face  of  her  Babe,  offered  Him  up  to  His 
Heavenly  Father,  pressed  Him  to  her  heart,  gave 
Him  to  Joseph  to  embrace,  suckled  Him  most  lovingly, 
"  wrapped  Him  up  in  swaddling  clothes,  and  laid 
Him  in  a  manger"  :  then  they  both  knelt  down  and 
adored  Him.  It  was  a  very  humble  cradle  for  the 
Son  of  God ;  but  this  monarch  of  the  world  will  yet 
choose  to  reign  from  a  throne  so  painful  as  the  cross. 

In  the  minds  of  all  the  multitude  of  descendants 
of  David  in  Bethlehem  that  night  there  were  two 
great  monarchs,  the  mighty  Caesar  Augustus  and 
the  terrible  King  Herod,  the  usurper  and  oppressor 
of  the  Jewish  people.  One  of  Herod's  castles  was  not 
far  off,  and  perhaps  he  was  there  at  that  very  hour, 
feasting  and  carousing  amidst  his  courtiers,  whilst 
the  King  of  kings  is  cradled  in  a  manger.  Bethlehem 
obeys  Caesar  Augustus  and  trembles  at  the  very  name 
of  Herod,  and  has  neither  room  nor  bed,  nor  happy 
welcome,  for  the  gentle  queen  who  is  come  to  bring 
forth  her  Royal  Son.  Yet  in  His  birth-chamber,  Beth- 
lehem's humblest  lodging,  He  begins  His  reign  over 
men's  souls,  a  kingdom  all  ruled  by  love,  ending  in 
a  conquest  perfect  in  its  mastery  and  joyful  in 
its  obedience. 

Whilst  the  earth  was  silent  and  without  wel- 
come for  the  new-born  King,  the  heavens  were 
moved  in  their  glorious  mansions.  If  every  door 
in  the  City  of  David  was  shut  against  Jesus,  the 
gates  of  the  Celestial  City  were  opened  wide  and 
the  sweet  voices  of  angels  bade  Him  welcome. 

One  mile  east  of  Bethlehem  are  the  ruins  of  a 
church  built  by  the  Empress  St.  Helen,  mother  of 


Behold  I  bring  you  good  tidings 
of  great  joy  "  (Luke  ii.  9). 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Constantine  the  Great,  to  mark  the  spot 
where  the  shepherds,  in  their  rude  tower 
watching  over  their  flocks,  heard  the 
angels  sing  the  first  Gloria  in  Excelsis. 
"Behold  an  angel  of  the  Lord  stood  by 
them,  and  the  brightness  of  God  shone 
round  about  them,  and  they  feared  with 
a  great  fear.  And  the  angel  said  to 
them :  Fear  not ;  for  behold  I  bring  you 
good  tidings  of  great  joy,  that  shall  be 
to  all  people :  for  this  day  is  born  to 
you  a  Saviour,  who  is  Christ  the  Lord, 
in  the  city  of  David.  And  this  shall  be 
a  sign  unto  you.  You  shall  find  the  In- 
fant wrapped  in  swaddling  clothes,  and  laid  in  a  man- 
ger." And  then  the  angels  chanted  over  the  Child's 
cradle  the  hymn  of  reconciliation  between  earth  and 
heaven.  "And  suddenly  there  was  with  the  angel  a 
multitude  of  the  heavenly  army,  praising  God  and 
saying :  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth 
peace  to  men  of  good  will."  The  shepherds  were 
ravished  with  joy  at  this  celestial  praise  of  the  Messias, 
which  has  given  the  note  to  the  adoration  of  men  ever 
since,  is  caught  up  again  by  the  angels  and  passed 
from  one  order  of  the  celestial  spirits  to  another,  and 
ringing  back  to  earth  once  more,  is  repeated  in  glad- 
some tones  throughout  the  whole  earth.  Thus  the  lov- 
ing, thankful,  adoring  praise  of  Jesus,  begun  in  the 
stable  by  Mary  and  Joseph  and  echoed  in  the  heavens 
by  the  angelic  choir,  goes  on  everywhere  and  for  ever. 
Upright  souls  follow  the  guidance  of  God  naturally 
and  without  hesitation.  The  angels  are  gone ;  the 
ecstatic  song  is  done.  But  "the  shepherds  said  one 
to  another,  Let  us  go  over  to  Bethlehem,  and  let  us 
see  this  thing  that  is  come  to  pass,  which  the  Lord 


JESUS  IS  BORN  A  T  BETHLEHEM. 


79 


hath  showed  to  us.  And  they  came  with  haste,  and 
they  found  Mary  and  Joseph,  and  the  infant  lying  in 
a  manger."  It  was  not  hard  to  find  the  Babe,  for 
what  other  child  was  born  in  a  stable  and  laid  in  a 
manger  that  night  in  Bethlehem  ?  How  deep  the 
amazement,  the  joy,  the  adoration  of  the  shepherds, 
as  they  found  the  new-born  Messias  in  His  humble 
cradle !  There  they  saw  Him ;  and  as  Mary  lifted 
Him  up  for  their  caresses,  they  beheld  that  sweetest 
of  all  pictures  in  religion  or  art  or  poetry,  The  Mother 
and  Child.  They  paid  Him  reverence  as  He  sat  en- 
throned in  Mary's  arms,  with  Joseph  standing  by, 
perhaps  also  a  few  friends,  humble  men  and  women 
with  whom  our  holy  couple  had  made  acquaintance  on 
their  journey.  All  the  angels'  words 
were  now  clear  to  the  shepherds.  "And 
seeing,  they  understood  of  the  word  that 
had  been  spoken  to  them  concerning  the 
Child  ;  and  all  that  heard  wondered,  and 
at  those  things  that  were  told  them  by  the 
shepherds  "  ;  for  these  eagerly  related 
their  midnight  vision,  and  the  song  of 
the  angels  in  the  heavens.  "  Mary," 
meantime,  * '  kept  all  these  words  and  pon- 
dered them  in  her  heart."  What  a  book 
of  divine  wisdom  was  that  heart  of  Mary, 
containing  now  the  first  pages  of  the 
New  Law  of  Love,  and  afterwards  all  the 
pages  of  God's  Book  of  Wisdom!  As 
for  the  shepherds,  they  returned  to  their 
hill-side  pastures,  ' '  glorifying  and  prais- 
ing God  for  all  things  they  had  heard 
and  seen,  as  it  was  told  to  them." 

Christian  tradition  insists  that  the  birth 
of  Jesus  gave  no  pain  to   His  mother; 


"  There  were  in  the  same  count 
shepherds  watching1,  and  keeping  tl 
night-watches  over  their  flock 
(Luke  ii.  8). 


8o 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


and  this  is  borne  out  by  St.  Luke's  saying  that 
Mary  herself  was  able  to  fold  His  little  garment 
about  Him — to  "wrap  Him  up  in  swaddling 
clothes."  No  other  hands  were  worthy  to  first 
touch  and  care  for  her  Son  than  hers  who  had 
been  made  worthy  to  bear  Him. 

The  birth  of  Jesus  was  in  the  winter  season, 
about  the  Jewish  month  Tebeth  ;  but  the  exact 
day  it  seems  impossible  to  fix,  or  even  the  ex- 
act year.  That  it  was  about  the  Roman  year 
750  is  certain.  The  many  learned  writers  who 
have  studied  the  question  have  by  no  means 
settled  it :  the  year  is  uncertain,  but  is  fixed 
within  one  or  two  of  that  above  given,  and  the 
day  near  the  end  of  December.  Meantime  the 
A  sHEFHERiToF  JUDEA.  Christian  people  keep  the  traditional  Christmas 
of  their  forefathers. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    CHILD    JESUS    IS    CIRCUMCISED. 

Luke  ii.  21. 

IT  was  God's  will  that  the  first  drops  of  blood  shed 
for  our  redemption  should  be  an  offering  of  obedience 
to  the  law  of  Moses.  Let  the  old  law  go  out  with 
all  honor ;  let  it  enroll  in  letters  of  royal  blood  the 
name  of  the  New  Man,  the  new-born  Messias.  "  And 
after  eight  days  were  accomplished  that  the  Child 
should  be  circumcised,  His  name  was  called  JESUS, 
which  was  called  by  the  angel  before  He  was  con- 
ceived in  the  womb." 

John  the  Baptist's  circumcision  receives  from  St. 
Luke  an  extended  notice,  not  only  because  John  was 


THE  CHILD  JESUS  IS  CIRCUMCISED.  81 

the  Precursor  of  the  Messias,  and  that  his  circumcision 
gave  occasion  to  Zachary's  Benedictus,  but  also  and 
especially  because  John  was  essentially  and  entirely 
a  subject  of  the  Old  Law,  of  which  circumcision  was 
the  symbol.  The  Evangelist  gives  but  a  brief  mention 
to  the  circumcision  of  Jesus,  because  in  His  case  the 
King  pays  no  tribute.  He  is  superior  to  the  law  of 
Moses,  which  He  came  to  supersede ;  He  is  its  institu- 
tor  and  the  High-Priest  of  all  its  rites.  Yet  out  of 
complaisance  to  it  Jesus  was  circumcised. 

Circumcision  was  not  performed  in  the  Temple  or 
synagogue,  but  in  the  private  household  of  the  family, 
so  that  our  infant  Saviour  was  cut  and  bled  into  the 
Hebrew  religion  in  the  humble  abode  to  which  the 
Holy  Family  had  removed  from  the  stable ;  for  it  is 
very  probable  >  that  they  had  so  removed,  because 
when  the  Magi  came  they  found  the  Child  in  a  house. 
To  administer  circumcision  was  the  prerogative  of  the 
father  or  mother  of  the  child,  not  a  sacerdotal  office ; 
no  doubt  it  was  Joseph  who  drew  from  the  veins  of 
the  Divine  Infant  the  first  offerings  of  redeeming 
love, — that  atoning  blood  whose  very  fever  heat  was 
love  of  mankind.  The  words  accompanying  the  act 
were :  ' '  Blessed  be  Jehovah  the  Saviour.  He  hath 
sanctified  His  well  beloved  from  the  womb  of  his 
mother  and  hath  written  His  law  in  our  flesh.  He 
hath  signed  His  son  with  the  sign  of  His  covenant, 
that  He  may  impart  to  him  the  blessings  of  Abraham 
our  father."  And  the  assistants  answered  in  the 
words  of  the  Psalmist:  "Blessed  be  he  whom  Thou 
hast  chosen  for  Thy  child." 

The  name  Jesus  had  already  been  given  by  the 
Heavenly  Father  in  the  angelic  messages  to  both  Mary 
and  Joseph.  This  name  is  Josue  in  Hebrew,  and  was 
famed  as  the  title  of  the  son  of  Nun,  the  mighty  wan 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


rior  whom  Moses  macU* 
general-in-chief  of  th? 
Lord's  people,  and  who 
led  them  over  the  Jor- 
dan into  the  promised 
land,  a  large  part  of 
which  was  subdued  and 
occupied  by  them  under 
his  mighty  leadership. 
Josue  means  Saviour, 
and  its  Greek  form  is 
Jesus. 

God  the  Father  hav- 
ing bestowed  the  name 
Jesus,  Joseph,  whom 
Heaven  had  appointed 
to  act  as  the  Child's 
earthly  father,  carried 
out  the  divine  purpose, 

and  solemnly  repeated  the  angel's  words  :  "  Thou  shalt 
call  His  name  Jesus,  for  He  shall  save  His  people  from 
their  sins."  The  sacred  records  join  another  name  to 
that  of  Jesus :  the  word  Messias,  in  Greek,  Christ,  or 
the  anointed  ;  the  anointed  Saviour  of  mankind  is  thus 
the  Lord's  full  name.  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  Son  of  Mary, 
is  the  human  being  who  is  anointed  with  the  divine 
nature  and  made  a  divine  person  ;  also  :  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth is  the  chosen  King,  as  His  father  David  was,  and 
is  anointed  in  token  of  His  divine  kingship  ;  and  again : 
the  word  Messias,  so  significant  to  the  Jews,  concen- 
trated the  meaning  of  all  the  prophets  of  old  when 
telling  of  Israel's  redeemer. 

Jesus  Christ  is  and  always  was  the  only  and  full 
name  of  our  Saviour.  Ever  since  the  primitive  Church 
began  to  use  it,  it  is  the  sweetest  name  and  the  mightiest 


BETHLEHEM  FROM  THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  NATIVITY. 


THE  CHILD  JESUS  IS  CIRCUMCISED.  83 

name  ever  spoken.  Under  heaven  there  is  no  other 
name  given  by  which  men  may  be  saved.  God's  au- 
thorized Saviour  is  the  meaning  of  the  name,  prophetic 
as  Joseph  pronounced  it,  in  actual,  fulfilment  as  we 
know  it,  and  to  a  degree  beyond  power  of  words  to 
estimate.  Ever  since  that  solemn  investment  of  the 
Divine  Infant  with  His  name  and  title,  the  lips  of  men 
and  women  and  children  have  spoken  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  joy  and  sorrow,  in  faith  and  hope  and  love 
and  penitence,  in  face  of  torments  an'd  in  disdain  of 
allurements,  in  the  quiet  of  contemplation  and  in  the 
whirlwind  of  temptation.  The  name  Jesus  Christ  has 
been  the  watchword  of  all  that  was  best  in  humanity, 
most  virtuous,  greatest,  and  most  heroic.  More  and 
more  that  name  prevails  for  all  that  is  good  and  wise, 
and  for  the  salvation  of  the  human  race.  Thus  was 
Jesus  circumcised,  and  thus  was  the  original  purpose 
of  that  holy  rite  finally  fulfilled,  for  Abraham  and  his 
race  were  marked  with  it  as  a  token  that  the  Messias 
was  to  come. 

It  was  a  popular  Jewish  belief  that  at  every  circum- 
cision Klias  the  prophet  was  invisibly  present  among 
the  ten  regular  witnesses,  a  reminder  of  the  fiercest  and 
most  aggressive  loyalty  of  the  Hebrew  to  Jehovah. 
If  this  was  true,  Klias  must  have  embraced  the  Infant 
Messias  with  loving  reverence,  and  proclaimed  that  the 
outward  mark  of  circumcision  was  now  to  be  sup- 
planted by  the  inner  character  of  divine  sonship 
stamped  upon  the  soul,  no  longer  the  scar  in  the  flesh 
marking  the  true  child  of  Abraham,  but  the  soul's  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ  elevating  man  to  sonship  with  God. 


THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE   ADORATION   OF   THE    MAGI. 

Matt.  ii.  i— 12. 

After  Mary  and  Joseph,  the  first  to  be  called  to  the 
adoration  of  the  New- Born  were  the  simple  children 
of  nature :  God  has  always  preferred  the  men  who 
plough  the  fields  and  watch  the  flocks  and  ply  the  tools 
of  our  common  lot  of  labor ;  the  class  to  which  Jesus 
and  Mary  and  Joseph  belonged.  After  them,  the  best 
fitted  for  supernatural  faith  are  upright  men  of  science. 
Hence,  the  shepherds  were  succeeded  by  the  Wise  Men 
of  the  East  in  paying  homage  to  Jesus. 

Their  country  was  Chaldea.  In  that  country  in 
former  ages  the  people  of  God  had  lived  in  captivity, 
and  their  Scriptures  must  have  been  known  to  many  of 
the  more  learned  Chaldeans.  Perhaps  the  Magi  had 
received  the  holy  books  of  the  Hebrews  as  heirlooms 
from  their  fathers,  and  in  them  had  learned  the 
promise  of  a  Redeemer.  But  it  is  well  known  that 
Zoroaster,  their  great  philosopher,  plainly  taught  that 
God  would  some  day  send  a  mighty  teacher  to  man- 
kind, who  would  conquer  evil  and  establish  good  in  the 
world.  There  was  ample  material  in  all  this  for  the 


THE  A  DOR  A  TION  OF  THE  MAGI. 


investigations  of  scientific  inquirers  after  truth,  a  class 
whose  love  of  research  is  proverbial.  But  these  men 
were  not  only  enlightened  men  of  science,  they  were 
also  earnest  and  religious  spirits,  sharing  in  some  way 
or  other,  we  may  well  suppose,  the  Messianic  hopes  of 
Israel. 

God  had  sent  angels  to  announce  the  Glad  Tidings 
to  the  shepherds,  a  direct  mode  of  com- 
munication fitted  to  simple  minds  and 
requiring  no  discourse  of  reasoning  to 
understand.  He  acted  otherwise  with 
the  scholars  of  the  Orient.  They  were 
used  to  observing  the  heavens  for  the 
truths  of  science,  a  high  vocation,  and 
one  which  God  would  honor  in  an 
especial  manner.  They  sought  for 
natural  truth  among  the  heavenly 
bodies ;  God  spoke  to  them  among  the 
stars,  and  it  was  the  language  of  su- 
pernatural hope. 

There  is  no  valid  evidence  that 
the  Magi  were  kings.  They  were  ru- 
lers in  the  realm  of  intellect  and  priests 
of  the  temple  of  natural  science.  They 
came  from  I  lie  East — Chaldea — whence 
God  had  originally  called  Abraham.  These  souls  were 
the  elect  amoi:g  the  Gentiles,  representatives  of  one  of 
the  nobler  castes  of  human  kind.  The  brilliant  orb  in 
the  midnight  sky  turned  their  steps  towards  Jerusalem, 
the  one  point,  as  the  Magi  well  knew,  in  the  geography 
of  the  earth  that  centred  universal  expectation ;  and 
now,  in  the  ever  open  book  of  the  sky,  they  had  a  chart 
to  guide  their  journeying  thither.  Great  modern  as- 
tronomers have  endeavored,  with  some  show  of  success, 
to  prove  that  the  ' '  star ' '  was  but  an  extraordinary 


"There  came  wise  men   from  the 
East  to  Jerusalem  "  (Matt.  ii.  i). 


86 


THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


natural  phenomenon  which  God  used  for  His  purpose. 
But  the  only  entirely  satisfactory  explanation  is  that  it 
was  wholly  miraculous;  this  alone  explains  why  the 
Magi,  astronomers  by  profession,  were  irresistibly  moved 
to  follow  it.  This  shining  meteor  of  the  heavens  beckon- 
ed them  on  like  the  pillar  of  fire  leading  the  Israelites 
across  the  desert.  They  remembered  the  prophecy  of 
Balaam  (Numbers  xxiv.  17)  :  "  A  star  shall  rise  out 
of  Jacob,  and  a  sceptre  shall  spring  up  from  Israel." 
That  star  was  indicative  of  the  Teacher  they  sought 

after,   and    its    apparition    led  them 

ever  onward  with  steady  light. 
They  were  not  victims  of  the 
preposterous  delusions  of  astrol- 
ogy, but  reasonable  men  of  learning, 
assimilating  their  natural  knowledge 
to  the  supremacy  of  supernatural 
revelation.  Scarcely  any  passage  of 
Holy  Writ  is  so  sublime  as  the  brief 
and  simple  narrative  of  their  arrival 
at  Jerusalem  :  '  *  Now,  when  Jesus 
was  born  in  Bethlehem  of  Juda,  in 
the  days  of  King  Herod,  behold 
there  came  wise  men  from  the  East 
to  Jerusalem,  saying,  Where  is  He 
that  is  born  King  of  the  Jews,  for 
we  have  seen  His  star  in  the  East, 
and  are  come  to  adore  Him." 

They  had  doubtless  expected  to 
find  the  city  of  Jerusalem  in  an 
ecstasy  of  joy,  and  they  hoped  to 
pay  their  court  to  the  royal  heir 
amid  the  pomp  of  civil  and  religious 
rejoicing.  "Where 'is  He  that  is 
born  King  of  the  Jews?  "  they  in- 


"WE  HAVE  SEEN  HIS  STAR  IN  THE  EAST," 

When  Jesus  therefore  was  born  in   Beth- 
;  lehem  of  Juda,  in  the  days  of  king  Herod, 
|  behold    there    came    wise    men  from    the 
i  East  to  Jerusalem,   saying :  Where  is  he 
j  that  is  born  King  of  the  Jews  ?     For  we 
have  seen  his  star  in  the  East,  and  are  come 
to  adore  him.     And  king  Herod  hearing 
i  this,  was  troubled,  and  all  Jerusalem  with 
|  him.      And    assembling    together    all    the 
chief  priests  and  the  Scribes  of  the  people, 
he  inquired  of  them  where   Christ  should 
be  born.     But  they  said  to  him  :  In  Bethle- 
hem of  Juda.     For  so  it  is  written  by  the 
prophet  :  And  thou  Uethlehem  the  land  of 
Juda  art  not  the  least  among  the  princes  of 
\  Juda  :  for  out  of  thee  shall  come  fbrth  the 
\  captain  that  shall  n.le  my  people  Israel. 
Then  Herod  privately  calling  the  wise  men 
learned  diligently  of  them  the  time  of  the 
star  which  appeared  to  them  ;  and  sending 
them  into  Bethlehem  said  :  Go  and  dili- 
gently inquire  after  the  child  ;  and  when 
you  have  found  him,  bring  me  word  again, 
that  I  also  may  come  and  adore  him.     And 
|  when  they  had   heard  the  king,  they  went 
their  way :  and    behold,   the    star,    which 
|  they  had  seen  in  the  East,  went  before  them, 
until  it  came  and   stood  over  where    the 
child  was.     And,  seeing  the  star,  they  re- 
joiced with  exceeding  joy.     And  going  into 
the  house,  they  found  the  child  with  Mary 
his  mother  :  and  falling  down,  they  adored 
him :    and  opening    their   treasures,    they 
offered   to    him  gifts,  gold,  frankincense, 
and  myrrh.      And  having  received  an  an- 
swer in  sleep,  that  they  should  not  return 
to   Herod,  they  went  back    another    way 
into  their  own   country. 


THE  ADORA  T1ON  OF  THE  MAGI.  87 

stantly  inquired  on  reaching  Jerusalem — as  if  to  shame 
the  indifference  of  the  unworthy  subjects  of  so  great 
a  monarch.  They  found  no  special  religious  excite- 
ment in  the  city  over  the  cradle  of  the  new-born 
King,  whom  even  the  heathen  nations  were  seeking 
that  they  might  pay  Him  tribute.  Their  inquiry  grew 
quickly  into  a  general  questioning,  and  reached  the 
ears  of  the  aged  tyrant  Herod.  This  monster  had 
killed  his  own  children  on  suspicion  of  their  purpose 
to  supplant  him  ;  what  must  have  been  his  feelings 
when  he  learned  of  this  heaven-guided  embassy  ?  Who 
is  the  new  claimant  ?  Where  is  he  ?  The  cunning 
old  man  dissembled  his  terror,  and  tried  to  use  the 
faith  of  the  Magi  as  a  cloak  to  his  fell  designs.  "And 
when  he  had  gathered  all  the  chief  priests 
and  scribes  of  the  people  together,  he  demanded 
of  them  where  Christ  should  be  born.  And 
they  said  unto  him,  In  Bethlehem  of  Juda. 
For  so  it  is  written  by  the  prophet."  This 
answer  of  the  Sanhedrin  deepened  the  misgiv-  COIN  OF  HEROD  T] 
ings  of  the  tyrant  and  darkened  his  evil  mind  yet 
more  against  the  New-Born.  He  called  the  Wise 
Men  to  a  private  interview  and  questioned  them  about 
the  star.  His  directions  to  them,  however  honest  the 
sound  of  the  words,  were  given  in  bitter  and  scoff- 
ing irony.  He  said,  "  Go,  and-  inquire  after  the  Child, 
and  when  you  have  found  Him,  bring  me  word  again, 
that  I  also  may  come  and  adore  Him."  That  is  to  say, 
"  I  intend  to  kill  Him  ;  and  I  will  kill  you  too  if  you 
are  simple  enough  to  return  to  me." 

All  this  profoundly  discouraged  the  Magi,  and 
severely  tried  their  faith.  They  were  strangers  ;  they 
had  travelled  from  a  great  distance  ;  they  had  over- 
come many  obstacles  in  order  to  pay  homage  to  the 
new-born  King  of  the  Jews.  And  the  Jews  them- 


88 


THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIS  T. 


selves  were  indifferent,  and  they  more  than  suspected 
that  their  king  was  incredulous  and  scornful.     Might 
not   they   themselves   be   victims   of  an   illusion?  they 
must    have    thought.     If   the    Jewish    king    and    his 
priests  had  no  living  faith  in  their  own  prophets,   how 
could    they,   Gentiles    as   they    were,    trust   the   mys- 
tery of  the  star?     But  they  did  trust  it.     At  the  end 
of   the   perplexities   of  that   sad    day,    the    Magi,    not 
waiting    till    the    following   morning,    set   out    in   the 
deepening   twilight  for   Bethlehem.     Sorrowfully   they 
gazed    into,  the    darkening    sky,    when    suddenly    the 
miraculous  star  shone  out  before  them,    as  if  it  were 
the  great  lantern  of  an  angel  beckoning  them  to  con- 
tinue  their  journey  under  his  guidance.     It  led  them 
on    "  till   it    came   and  stood   over    where   the    Child 
was."     It  led  them  on  through  the  gaps  of  the  moun- 
tains of  Judea,  and  at  last  rested   upon  the   house  to 
which,  after  leaving  the  stable,  the  Holy  Family  had 
removed.     "  And   going   into   the   house,    they   found 
the  Child  with  Mary  His  mother  :  and  falling   down, 
they  adored  Him.     And  opening  their  treasures,  they 
offered  to  Him  gifts,  gold,  frankincense,  and  myrrh." 
This  triple  offering  meant  more  than  mere  reverence 
loyalty.     It   was    eminently    a   religious   oblation, 
both  real  and  symbolical.     Perhaps  they  did  not  at 
first  know  the  divine  nature  of  the  Child-  God,  but, 
at  least  vaguely,  they  understood  that  here  the  Deity 
was   nearest   humanity.      Gold,  therefore,  to  God's 
royal  dignity  ;  myrrh  to  His  beloved  but  mortal  hu- 
man frame  ;  and  incense  to  the  Deity's  proper  self, 
whose  tender  and  powerful  influence  seemed  to  beam 
'into  their  very  souls  from  the  lovely  Babe  enthroned 
in  Mary's  arms.     Her  words  dispelled  every  doubt, 
And  opening  their   she  answered  every  question.     Before  these  devout 
ambassadors  of   the  Gentile  world  had  taken  their 


or 


THE  ADORA  T1ON  OF  THE  MAGI. 

departure  from  Bethlehem,  all 
that  Mary,  all  that  Joseph  knew, 
had  been  told  them — a  unique 
favor,  due  to  souls  so  upright  ; 
to  servitors  of  fr  avenly  wisdom 
so  entirely  loyal. 

But  what  about  the  injunction 
of  Herod  to  return  to  him  with 
news  of  the  infant  King  ?  As 
they  thought  of  it  they  must 
have  contrasted  the  Holy  Family 
at  Bethlehem,  radiant  with  every 
beauty  of  innocence  and  love  and 
wisdom,  with  the  gloomy  palace 
of  Herod,  full  of  scoffing  unbe- 
lief, jealousy,  suspicion,  deceit, 
cruelty.  Their  distrust  of  Herod 
was  miraculously  confirmed : 
"And  having  received  an  an- 
swer in  sleep,  that  they  should 
not  return  to  Herod,  they  went 
back  another  way  into  their  own  country." 

Thus  the  wall  of  separation  between  Jew  and 
Gentile  was  thrown  down  at  the  very  birth  of  the 
Messias.  The  Wise  Men  could,  and  doubtless  did, 
publish  to  the  pagan  nations  a  universal  religion  as 
now  beginning,  and  promise  that  not  by  blood  or 
race  or  will  of  men,  but  by  the  love  of  the  great 
Father  of  all  should  men  be  saved. 

Christian  tradition  is  not  agreed  as  to  the  number 
of  these  first  Gentile  converts,  and  the  earliest  Chris- 
tian art  in  the  catacombs  represents  them  indifferently 
as  two,  three,  or  four.  But  the  common  belief  has 
always  been  that  there  were  but  three.  Venerable 
Bede  witnesses  one  tradition  of  their  names  and  per- 


90  THE  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

sonal  traits,  as  well  as  the  order  of  their  offerings. 
The  first  was  Melchior,  a  venerable  man  with  long 
beard  and  hair,  who  offered  to  the  lyord  a  gift  of 
gold,  as  a  subject  doing  homage  to  his  king ;  the 
second  was  a  youth,  ruddy  and  beardless,  named  Gas- 
par,  who  offered  the  gift  of  incense,  as  a  creature 
adoring  his  God;  the  third  was  in  middle  life,  and 
was  named  Balthassar,  swarthy  and  bearded,  whose 
gift,  that  of  a  fellow-man  to  the  head  of  the  race  of 
mortal  men,  was  the  embalming  spice  of  myrrh.  They 
thus  represented  the  three  stages  of  human  life,  and 
the  three  great  divisions  of  the  human  family,  Asiatic, 
European,  and  African. 


THE  PRESENTATION. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   CHILD  JKSUS    IS    PRESENTED   IN   THE 

SIMEON,    AND   ANNA   THE    PROPHETESS. 

Luke  ii.  22-38. 

'AR  inferior  in  its  ideals  and  stand- 
ards to  Christian  marriage  was  wed- 
lock among  the  Jews,  although  a 
holy  state.  Therefore  God  annexed 
to  every  fruit  of  the  Israelite  womb  a 
vivid  reminder  of  human  concupis- 
cence; this  was  the  law  of  Purification.  Upon  the 
birth  of  a  son  the  mother  was  tainted  with  legal  un- 
cleanness  for  an  entire  week.  She  could  only  leave 
her  dwelling  at  the  end  of  forty  days,  when  she  was 
required  to  present  herself  in  the  Temple  to  be  made 
clean  by  the  official  prayer  of  the  priesthood.  If  her 
son  was  her  first-born,  he  was  solemnly  presented  unto 
the  special  service  of  Jehovah,  from  which  he  was  ran- 
somed by  the  offering  of  a  yearling  lamb. 

Now,  Mary  was  exempt  from  the  law  of  Purifica- 
tion. Legally  she  was  not  unclean,  for  she  had 
conceived  her  Son  by  a  miracle  of  God.  And  Jesus 
was  not  legally  subject  to  the^law  of  Presentation, 
for  He  was  Jehovah's  only-begotten  Son  and  Him- 
self the  great  High-Priest.  But  the  holy  virtue  of 
humility  was  to  be  preferred  before  personal  rights ; 
the  divine  plan  must  yet  be  kept  secret,  and  the 
rules  of  the  Mosaic  law  were  to  be  treated  with 
reverence.  And  so  Mary,  under  Joseph's  escort, 
went  to  Jerusalem  and  stood  at  the  door  of  the  Tem- 
ple when  her  forty  days  were  accomplished,  as  if 
she  too  were  unclean.  One  of  the  priests  sprinkled 
her  with  the  sacrificial  blood  and  declared  her  puri- 


"A   Pair  of    Turtle 
Doves"  fLuke  ii.  24). 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

fied.     Then  she   ransomed    her    Son ;    and   as 
she  was  too  poor  to  offer  the  yearling  lamb,  she 
presented    the    legal    substitute,    a  present  of 
j^.       two  turtle  doves.     Little  did  the  priest 
**^-     who   officiated    dream   that    the    infant 
Son  of  Mary  would  of- 
^    fer  Himself  to  God  not 
-L§>    far   from   that   spot   for 
the  ransom  of    the   en- 
tire   human    race   in   a 
divinely     whole     burnt 
sacrifice.      Little   could 
he     suppose    that    here 
was    at   once    the    true 
priest  and   true  victim, 


But  Mary  kept  all  these  words,  pondering  them  in  her 
heart  "  (Luke  ii.  19). 


DOVES  OF  THE 
ORIENT, 


«  ,  ,,  ,    ,.     , 

place  of  the  symbolical 

priesthood  and  the  pro- 
phetical victims,  of  both 
of  which  He  was  the 
perfect  realization. 

As  far  as  concerned 
the  Presentation  of  Je- 
sus, His  acceptance  by  the  priest  and  the  payment  of 
His  ransom  by  His  parents,  the  conformity  to  outward 
observance  concealed  the  true  dignity  of  the  group  of 
Galileans:  the  degenerate  priesthood  was  not  worthy 
to  know  Jesus  and  Mary  and  Joseph.  But  there  were 
others  present  who  were  worthy :  two  souls  who  were 
deeply  religious,  full  of  heavenly  light,  and  whom  God 
appointed  His  ambassadors — succeeding  the  shepherds 
and  the  Magi — to  welcome  the  Messias  to  His  house 
and  to  His  mission,  representatives  of  the  ardent  faith 
of  ancient  days  and  of  true  Judaism.  Simeon,  just 
and  holy  and  expectant  of  the  consolation  of  Israel, 


93 


THE  PRESENT  A  TION. 

full  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  while  await- 
ing death  in  his  advanced  age,  had 
been  told  in  a  vision  that  before  his 
end  he  should  see  the  anointed  of 
the  Lord.  This  patriarch  of  the 
later  era  of  God's  people  had  been 
coming  to  the  Temple  for  many 
years,  hoping  to  behold  the  freedom 
of  Israel  from  sin  and  slavery,  just 
as  a  weary  exile  goes  to  the  shore 
and  scans  the  horizon  for  the  long 
expected  ship. 

But  the  years  passed  on,  and 
there  was  no  news  of  the  Messias 
till  the  coming  of  the  Wise  Men, 
whose  inquiries  aroused  his  hopes. 
But  they,  alas !  had  not  returned 
from  their  search.  At  last,  this  true 
son  of  Abraham,  whose  faith  was 
the  principle  of  his  life,  was  to  be 
rewarded.  Under  the  spell  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  he  enters  the  Tem- 
ple. A  first-born  son  has  just  been 
offered ;  he  beholds  Him  with  sud- 
den emotions  of  tenderness.  He 
looks  upon  the  mother,  and  he  asks 
a  few  hurried  questions — Bethlehem, 
the  Magi,  the  Star!  He  begs  the 
privilege  of  taking  the  Child  in  his 
arms,  and  as  the  sweet  face  leans 
upon  his  bosom  and  the  tender  eyes 
of  the  Infant  gaze  upon  him,  the 
Spirit  whispers  in  his  heart,  It  is  the  Messias!  "  And 
he  blessed  God  and  said,  Now  thou  dost  dismiss  thy 
Servant,  O  Lord,  according  to  Thy  word,  in  peace.  Be- 


THE    PRESENTATION. 

And  after  the  days  of  her  purification 
according  to  the  law  of  Moses  were  accom- 
plished, they  carried  him  to  Jerusalem,  to 
present  him  to  the  Lord.  As  it  is  written 
in  the  law  of  the  Lord,  Every  male  open- 
ing the  womb  shall  be  called  holy  to  the 
Lord.  And  to  offer  a  sacrifice  according 
as  it  is  written  in  the  law.of  the  Lord,  a  pair 
of  turtle  doves,  or  two  young  pigeons. 
And  behold  there  was  a  man  in  Jerusalem 
named  Simeon,  and  this  man  was  just  and 
devout,  waiting  for  the  consolation  of 
Israel:  and  the  Holy  Ghost  was  in  him. 
And  he  had  received  an  answer  from  the 
Holy  Ghost,  that  he  should  not  see  death 
before  he  had  seen  the  CHRIST  of  the  Lord. 
And  he  came  by  the  Spirit  into  the 
temple.  And  when  his  parents  brought 
in  the  child  JESUS,  to  do  for  him  according 
to  the  custom  of  the  law,  he  also  took 
him  into  his  arms,  and  blessed  God,  and 
said :  Now  thou  dost  dismiss  thy  servant, 
O  Lord,  according  to  thy  word,  in  peace. 
Because  my  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation, 
which  thou  hast  prepared  before  the  face 
of  all  peoples :  a  light  to  the  revelation 
of  the  gentiles,  and  the  glory  of  thy  peo- 
ple Israel.  And  his  father  and  mother 
were  wondering  at  those  things  which 
were  spoken  concerning  him.  And  Simepn 
blessed  them,  and  said  to  Mary  his  m'o- 
ther :  Behold  this  child  is  set  for  the  fall, 
and  for  the  resurrection  of  many  in  Israel, 
and  for  a  sign  which  shall  be  contradicted  : 
And  thy  own  soul  a  sword  shall  pierce, 
that  outr  of  many  hearts  thoughts  may  be 
revealed.  And  there  was  one  Anna,  a 
prophetess,  the  daughter  of  Phanuel,  of 
the  tribe  of  Aser;  she  was  far  advanced 
in  years,  and  had  lived  with  her  husband 
seven  years  from  her  virginity.  And  she 
was  a  widow  until  fourscore  and  four  years  ; 
who  departed  not  from  the  temple,  by  fast- 
ings and  prayers  serving  night  and  day. 
Now  she  at  the  same  hour  coming  in,  con- 
fessed to  the  Lord  ;  and  spoke  of  him  to 
all  that  looked  for  the  redemption  of 
Israel.  And  after  they  had  performed  all 
things  according  to  the  law  of  the  Lord, 
they  returned  into  Galilee,  to  their  city 
Nazareth. 


94  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

cause  my  eyes  have  seen  Thy  salvation,  which  Thou 
hast  prepared  before  the  face  of  all  peoples,  a  light  to 
the  revelation  of  the  Gentiles,  and  the  glory  of  Thy 
people  Israel." 

The  man  of  faith  is  thus  elevated  to  be  a  prophet  of 
God,  sings  in  holy  melody  the  inspiration  of  his  soul, 
gazes  into  the  future  and  beholds  the  narrow  race  of 
Israel  broadened  into  the  great -family  of  humanity,  en- 
lightened by  the  Christ  of  God,  saved  by  the  Holy 
One  of  the  prophets  :  Oh,  now  let  me  lie  down  in  joy  and 
die ;  I  have  seen  and  embraced  the  Saviour  of  the 
whole  world  !  The  patriarchs  of  old,  King  David,  the 
prophets — how  solemnly  their  stirring  tones  are  echoed 
and  prolonged  upon  the  voice  of  Simeon  ! 

Who  was  this  grand  old  Israelite  ?  There  were  men 
of  much  distinction  bearing  his  name  in  Jerusalem 
about  this  epoch,  and  ingenious  efforts  have  been 
made  to  identify  him  with  one  or  other  of  them. 
But  in  vain ;  the  curious  may  study  these  pious  at- 
tempts with  pleasure,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  Simeon 
emerges  from  absolute  obscurity,  and  in  one  brief 
and  fleeting  scene  pillows  the  infant  Saviour  on  his 
throbbing  heart,  lifts  up  his  voice  in  one  of  the  love- 
liest canticles  in  Holy  Writ,  salutes  the  New-Born 
on  behalf  of  the  venerable  Mosaic  dispensation,— and 
is  gone  with  most  sorrowful  words  of  farewell.  For 
as  Joseph  and  Mary  marvelled  at  the  things  that 
Simeon  spoke  of  Jesus,  "he  blessed  them,  and  said 
unto  Mary  His  mother,  Behold  this  Child  is  set  for  the 
fall,  and  for  the  resurrection  of  many  in  Israel,  and 
for  a  sign  which  shall  be  contradicted.  And  thy  own 
soul  a  sword  shall  pierce,  that  out  of  many  hearts 
thoughts  may  be  revealed."  The  eye  of  this  patri- 
arch was  enlightened  to  know  that  although  Joseph 
was  bound  to  Jesus  by  ties  of  love  as  adopted  father; 


SIMEON,  AND  ANNA   THE  PROPHETESS.  95 

Mary  alone  was  bound  to  Him  by  those  of  blood, 
and  he  spoke  therefore  to  her  alone,  foretelling  the 
meaning  of  that  Cross  whose  shadowy  form  he  saw 
resting  upon  the  New- Born  Babe,  and  whose  agony 
would  reach  the  very  soul  of  the  sorrowful  mother,  as 
the  soldier's  lance  should  pierce  the  heart  of  her 
crucified  Son. 

The  glorious  old  patriarch  has  been  vouchsafed  a 
true  sight  of  the  future  ages. 

The  sign  of  contradiction — what  is  it  but  the  Cross 
of  Jesus  Christ  ?  Men  approach  it,  some  to  perish 
hopelessly,  others  to  rise  gloriously.  It  has  been  the 
standard  for  and  against  which  the  race  of  Adam  has 
been  ever  since  embattled — in  philosophy,  learning, 
literature,  government,  education.  No  man  and  no 
institution  of  man's  making  can  remain  neutral ;  all 
must  be  enrolled  in  warfare  for  or  against  the  Cross 
of  Christ. 

To  Simeon  God  associated  Anna  the  prophetess  in 
this  greeting  of  the  New- Born.  She  was  a  widow  far 
advanced  in  years,  to  whom  the  Temple  had  become  a 
home,  serving  the  Lord  night  and  day  with  fasting 
and  prayer.  Enlightened  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  she  stood 
beside  Simeon,  knew  Jesus  for  the  Messias,  and  loving- 
ly welcomed  Him  to  His  Temple  and  His  people.  It 
is  to  her,  probably,  that  we  owe  the  details  of  this 
scene,  for  St.  Luke  tells  us  that  she  afterwards — with 
how  much  joy  she  must  have  done  it ! — spoke  of  Jesus 
to  all  who  looked  for  the  redemption  of  Israel. 


THE     SLAUGHTER  ;     NAZA 
RETH. 


96  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    FLIGHT    INTO  EGYPT. — THE    SLAUGHTER   OF  THE 

INNOCENTS. — THE   RETURN   TO   NAZARETH. 

Matt.  ii.  13—23. 

ST.  L,UKE,  who  does  not  narrate  the  flight  into 
Egypt,  says  that  after  the  Presentation  the  Holy 
Family  returned  to  Na,zareth;  but 
this  can  only  mean  upon  the  return 
from  Egypt,  whither  God  sent  them 
to  escape  the  wrath  of  Herod.  This 
is  narrated  by  St.  Matthew,  who, 
after  telling  of  the  departure  of  the 
Magi,  says  :  "  Behold  the  angel  of 
the  L/ord  appeared  in  sleep  to  Joseph, 
saying  :  Arise,  and  take  the  Child 
and  His  mother,  and  fly  into  Egypt, 
and  be  there  until  I  shall  tell  thee : 
for  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  Herod 
will  seek  the  Child  to  destroy  Him." 
It  seems  altogether  likely  that 
Joseph  had  decided  to  live  in  Beth- 
lehem, the  City  of  David,  and  there- 
fore of  David's  successor.  Awork- 


And  behold,  an  Angel  of  the  Lord  ap- 
peared in  sleep  to  Joseph,  saying  :  Arise, 
and  take  the  child  and  his  mother,  and 
fly  into  Egypt ;  and  be  there  until  1  shall 
tell  thee.  For  it  will  come  to  pass  that 
Herod  will  seek  the  child,  to  destroy 
him.  Who  rising  up,  took  the  child  and 
his  mother  by  night,  and  retired  into 
Egypt.  And  he  was  there  until  the  death  of 
Herod  :  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which 
the  Lord  spoke  by  the  prophet,  saying  : 
Out  of  Egypt  have  I  called  my  son.  Then 
i  lerod,  perceiving  that  he  was  deluded  by 
the  wise  men,  was  exceeding  angry ;  and, 
sending,  killed  all  the  men-children  that 
were  in  Bethlehem,  and  in  all  the  confines 
thereof,  from  two  years  old  and  under, 
according  to  the  time  which  he  had  dili- 
gently inquired  of  the  wise  men.  Then 
was  fulfilled  that  which  was  spoken  by 
Jeremias  the  prophet,  saying:  A  voice  in 
Rama  was  heard,  lamentation  and  great 
mourning;  Rachel  bewailing  her  chil- 
dren, and  would  not  be  comforted,  because 
they  are  not.  But  when  Herod  was  dead, 
behold  an  Angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  in 
sleep  to  Joseph  in  Egypt,  saying  :  Arise, 
r.nd  take  the  child  and  his  mother,  and 
go  into  the  land  of  Israel.  For  they  are 
dead  that  sought  the  life  of  the  child. 
Who  arose,  and  took  the  child  and  his 
mother,  and  came  into  the  land  of  Israel. 
But  hearing  that  Archelaus  reigned  in 
Judea  in  the  room  of  Herod  his  father, 
I  he  was  afraid  to  go  thither  :  and  being 
|  warned  in  sleep,  retired  into  the  quarters 
jof  Galilee.  And  coming  he  dwelt  in  a 
j  city  called  Nazareth  :  that  it  might  be  ful- 
filled which  was  said  by  the  prophets : 
that  he  shall  be  called  a  Nazarite.  ,  ,  ,  . 

he    needed   for   the    support  of    his 


ing-man  like  Joseph  makes  no  great 
ceremony  of  changing  abode ;  his 
own  strong  arms  and  his  good  trade 
are  his  best  and  generally  his  only 
fortune.  Furthermore,  the  sojourn 
in  Bethlehem  doubtless  gave  the 
Holy  Family  enough  of  considera- 
tion to  secure  Joseph  the  patronage 


family.     But  it  is  also  probable  that  after  the  Presen- 
tation  he   stayed  over-night   in   Jerusalem  with   some 


THE  FLIGHT  INTO  EGYPT. 


97 


Galilean  kinsfolk  abiding  there  ;  and  then  it  was  that 
the  voice  of  the  angel  sounded  in  his  startled  soul : 
"Arise,  and  take  the  Child  and  His  mother,  and  fly 
into  Egypt."  Before  the  dawn  of  day  Joseph  and 
Mary  and  the  sleeping  Babe  were  hurrying  away  to 
that  country  which  had  been  the  asylum  of  distressed 
Hebrews  since  the  days  of  Abraham. 

Many  Jews  were  in  Egypt,  and  of  one  of  their 
synagogues  there  it  was  said  that  its  splendor 
recalled  the  glory  of  Solomon's  temple.  These 
Jews  of  Egypt  were  divided  according  to  their 
occupations,  and  Joseph  could  easily  find  a  modest 
living  among  the  carpenters,  though  perhaps  the 
gifts  of  the  Wise  Men  to  the  New-Born  supplied  every 
want.  Prodigies  are  told  of  the  journey  of  this  holy 
group  and  their  arrival  upon  the  Nile.  Curious  tradi- 
tions tell  of  Demas,  the  "good  thief,"  afterwards  the 
companion  of  Jesus  on  Calvary,  harboring  the  Holy 
Family  during  one  of  the  halts  on  the  way  ;  of  the 
lions  and  leopards  adoring  the  divine  Infant  by  humble 
prostrations  ;  of  the  palm-trees  bending  low  their  grace- 
ful tops  and  offering  their  delicious  fruit ;  of  the 
heathen  idols  falling  down  and  break- 
ing to  pieces  as  the  New-Born  came 
in  sight.  But  the  Gospel  narrative  is 
simply  that  Joseph  "  arose  and  took 
the  Child  and  His  mother  by  night, 
and  retired  into  Egypt,  and  was  there 
until  the  death  of  Herod." 

Many  of  our  readers  have  seen  an 
•engraving  of  a  masterpiece,  showing 
the  Egyptian  Sphinx,  and  Mary  with 
her  Child  in  her  arms  resting  between 
the  great  stone  paws  of  the  figure, 
which  gazes  into  the  starry  sky,  while 


ANCIENT   STATUE  ON  THE 
PLAIN  OF  THEBES. 


"Took  the  Child  and  his  mother 
by  night,  and  retired  into  Egypt " 
(Matt.  ii.  14). 


93 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Joseph  keeps  guard  on  the  sands  below.  The 
Sphinx  represented  poor  puzzled  humanity  gazing 
helplessly  into  the  silent  heavens,  waiting  for  an 
answer  to  the  riddle  of  human  life.  The  coming 
of  the  God-man  is  the  answer. 

The  tyrant  from  whom  Joseph  fled  with  Mary 
and  the  Child  was   now  drawing  near  the  end  of  one  of 
the  most  terrible  careers  known  to  history.     If  we  might 
naturally  hesitate  to  believe  in  the  possibility  of  the 
slaughter  of  the  Innocents,  let  us  recall  what  kind  of  a 
monster  unquestioned  authors  tells  us 'Herod  actually 
was.     Not   only  had   he  murdered  Jewish  priests  and 
other  prominent-  men  of  his  kingdom,  but  he  had  killed 
his  own  sons,  Alexander,  Aristobulus,  and  Antipater, 
as  well  as  his  wife's  father  and  mother  ; 
he    had    butchered    his   most    devoted 
personal     friends ;     he    had    strangled 
Mariamne,  the  faithful  wife   whom  he 
passionately     loved.      And     all      this 
slaughter    seemed   but   to  increase   his 
thirst  for   blood.     History  relates   that 
as  he  felt  his  death  coming  on  he  pur- 
posed enclosing  in  the  amphitheatre  of 
Jericho   the    leading    members    of    the 
noblest   families  of  Israel  and    having 
them  massacred  on  the  day  of  his  death. 
"Then,"  said  he,  "  there  will  be  tears 
at  my  funeral." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Herod, 
restless  and  suspicious  at  the  failure  of 
the  Magi  to  return  to  him,  was  told  by 
the  officers  of  the  Temple  of  the  start- 
ling occurrences  at  the  Presentation — 
the  strange  conduct  of  Simeon  and 
AN  ARAB  SHEIK.  his  inspired  song,  the  words  of  Anna 


THE  FLIGHT  INTO  EGYPT. 


99 


the  prophetess  addressed  to  the  people  ;  it 
was  enough  to  goad  him  on  to  unmeasured 
violence.  Here  is  a  rival  claimant  of  the 
royal  power,  born  in  Bethlehem,  presented 
in  the  Temple,  and  now — as  Herod  supposed 
— returned  again  to  Bethlehem,  his  domicile 
as  King  David's  heir.  The  emotion  among 
the  people,  arising  from  the  events  in  the 
Temple  must  have  seemed  to  him  like  an 
invasion  of  his  capital,  his  gloomy  spirit  was 
tormented  with  vague  fears  of  rebellion  and 
assassination.  How  profound  the  contrast 
between  the  turbulent  soul  of  this  cruel  A  CAMEL  POST. 

monster,  only  the  more  ferocious  as  he  felt  his  life 
drawing  to  an  end,  and  the  peaceful  hearts  of  the  lit- 
tle group  passing  down  the  steps  of  the  Temple,  soon 
to  be  warned  by  an  angel  to  fly  away  to  Egypt  in 
safety.  In  vain  did  Herod  issue  his 
dreadful  command  for  the  slaughter  of 
the  children  at  Bethlehem. 

The  number  of  the  Innocents  must 
have  been  between  twenty  and  thirty,  a 
due  proportion  for  a  town  estimated  at 
fifteen  hundred  inhabitants.  How  were 
they  killed?  Perhaps  by  one  common 
butchery,  or  perhaps  by  a  more  secret  and 
cunning  kind  of  murder.  Secular  history 
has  forgotten,  or  almost  forgotten,  to 
record  this  event,  which,  at  any  rate, 
would  be  but  a  lesser  stain  upon  a  reign 
all  smeared  with  blood.  The  Christian 
people  have  always  cherished  the  memory 
of  these  first  martyrs  of  Christ,  and  the 
agony  of  their  mothers,  as  one  of  the 
most  touching  incidents  connected  with  MODERN  HAGAR, 


100 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

our  Saviour's  nativity.  It  is  a  popular 
belief  that  God  granted  the  Innocents  a 
premature  use  of  reason,  that  they 
might  know  their  heroic  fate  and  glad- 
ly accept  it,  and  thus  have  the  merit 
of  it. 

King  Herod's  death  took  place  soon 
after  this  awful  deed.  A  fitting  end 
of  such  a  life  would  have  been  self- 
murder,  but  although  he  attempted  it 
his  attendants  hindered  him.  He  burn- 
ed with  incessant  fever  and  was  parch- 
ed with  raging  thirst  which  nothing 
could  quench.  The  whole  palace  reek- 
ed with  the  filthy  stench  of  his  body, 
rotting  before  its  time.  His  intestines 
were  tortured  by  the  agonizing  pain 
of  a  deadly  ulcer,  and  protruded  from 
"  Herod  sending  killed  all  the  men-  his  body.  To  these  corporal  miseries 

hildren   that  were   in   Bethlehem" 

Matt.  ii.  16).  were     added,   we    may  not  doubt,   the 

most  awful  mental  torments,  among  which  survived 
the  passion  of  envy ;  for  only  five  days  prior  to  his 
death  he  caused  his  son  Antipater  to  be  murdered. 
Then  he  died,  aged  sixty-nine,  in  the  thirty-fourth 
year  of  his  reign — an  era  signalized  by  his  unrivalled 
wickedness  and  by  the  happy  birth  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Again  the  angel  comes  to  Joseph  in  Egypt — how 
soon  or  late  after  Herod's  death  we  know  not — and 
says  to  him:  "Arise,  and  take  the  Child  and  His 
mother,  and  go  into  the  land  of  Israel,  for  they  are 
dead  who  sought  the  life  of  the  Child."  As  he  entered 
the  Holy  Land,  Joseph  learned  that  Archelaus  reigned 
in  Judea.  He  did  not  trust  him  and  would  not  go 
to  Bethlehem,  for  that  prince  was  already  a  public 
murderer.  But  Galilee  had  been  given  as  a  separate 


THE  RETURN  TO  NAZARETH. 


TO' 


kingdom  to  another  son  of  the  elder  Herod.  This 
prince  was  Herod  Antipas,  the  earlier  years  of  whose 
government  were  peaceful.  Joseph's  angelic  monitor, 
therefore,  bade  him  go  back  to 
Nazareth,  which  thus  became 
the  home  of  Jesus. 

In  this  way  did  God  save 
His  Son  from  the  cruelty  of  His 
enemies,  as  well  as  from  the 
premature  manifestation  of  His 
divine  personality  on  the  part 
of  His  friends.  The  shepherds, 
the  Magi,  Simeon,  Anna,  the 
other  faithful  depositaries  of  God's  prodigy,  could 
commune  devoutly  with  a  small  number  of  favored 
souls — but  where  .is  the  New-Born  King?  In  the 
obscurity  of  a  little  Galilean  city  He  bides  His 
time. 


"Rachel  bewailing  her  children,  and  would 
not  be  comforted,  because  they  are  not"  (Matt, 
ii.  18). 


RACHEL'S  SEPULCHRE* 


102 


'LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE    CHILDHOOD    OF  JESUS. 

Luke  ii.  4.0. 

the  Child  grew  and  waxed  strong,  full  of 
wisdom,  and  the  grace  of  God  was  in  Him." 
St.  Luke  might  have  said  as  much  of  any 
holy  child,  but  in  this  case  he  touches  upon 
one  of  the  great  mysteries  of  the  Incarnation  : 
the  natural  development  of  the  man  Jesus. 
It  is  certain  that  He  had  the  use  of  reason 
from  the  instant  of  His  conception,  yet  in  all  external 
conduct  He  was  led  into  active  and  intelligent  use 
of  His  mental  faculties  as  other  boys  are;  and  just 
as  His  bodily  force  was  brought  out  and  established 
in  a  graceful,  muscular  frame  by  the  labors  of  a  car- 
penter's apprentice,  so  by  the  teaching  of  Mary  and 
Joseph  His  understanding  was  trained.  He  learned 
the  first  lessons  of  Hebrew  morality  and  worship  at 
the  same  time  and  place  that  He  learned  to 
handle  the  carpenter's  tools.  Never  were  such 
teachers  as  Mary  and  Joseph.  God  allowed 
the  human  soul  of  His  Son  Jesus  to  be  in- 
structed by  them,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  fitted 
them  for  their  task. 

His  human  nature  was  not  a  mere  ap- 
pearance, but  a  full  reality.  The  divine  nature 
might  indeed  have  taken  possession  of  all  His 
human  faculties  and  assumed  imperative  con- 
trol, and  no  other  teaching  would  have  then 
been  possible.  But  God  willed  otherwise. 
Jesus  was  taught,  Jesus  learned,  He  studied, 
He  thought,  He  reasoned  as  men  do  from 
childhood  up.  The  exception  to  this  humanly 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  JESUS.  103 

natural  process  was  when  it  was  interrupted  for  a 
special  purpose.  But  ordinarily  the  humanity  of  Jesus 
was  not  absorbed  by  His  divinity.  Soul  and  body 
were  perfect  in  their  humanity,  which  always  remained 
wholly  itself.  It  used  its  personal  contact  with  the 
divine  nature  to  save  itself  from  errors  and  weaknesses, 
but  never  to  become  such  a  prodigy  as  to  be  beyond 
reach  of  imitation. 

At  the  summit  of  His  conscious  life  the  man  Jesus 
felt  the  unitive  personal  bond  of  the  God  Jesus.  But 
the  divinity  was  displayed  only  exceptionally,  in  some 
marvel  necessary  to  overwhelm  the  dul- 
ness  of  the  people  or  the  incredulity 
of  the  Scribes.  Hence  He  stored  His 
memory  by  human  means;  He  exer- 
cised His  intelligence  by  the  use  of 
His  eyes  and  ears.  He  learned  to  read 
and  to  write  as  other  boys  do.  He 
passed  from  the  simple  intuition  of 
childhood  gradually  and  progressively 
to  the  reasoned  processes  of  developing 
mental  powers.  "  And  Jesus  advanced 
in  wisdom  and  age  and  grace  with  God 
and  men."  While  a  child  He  did  not 
act  like*  a  man ;  He  was  glad  to  be  a 
child  and  childlike.  His  perfection 
was  perfect  childhood. 

As  His  years  increased,  so  did  His 
human    wisdom :     by    the    lessons    of 
nature  always  about  Him,  by  the  teach- 
ing  of  His  parents,  by   the   habits  of 
thought  common  to  children,  by  the  pious  practices  of 
a  perfect    Hebrew    family.      Always  this   increase  of 
human  wisdom  was  lighted  up  by  the  eternal  wisdom 
that  dwelt  within  Him  ;   but  the  human  soul  never  lost 


104 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


its  distinct  identity.  We  may,  therefore,  put  aside 
the  infantile  miracles  of  the  apocryphal  gospels  as 
myths.  What  purpose  could  they  serve,  except  to 
embarrass  Mary  and  Joseph  ?  Besides,  St.  John  tells 
us  that  the  "beginning  of  miracles"  was  at  the 
wedding  of  Cana.  How  much  more  reasonable,  as 
well  as  edifying,  is  the  actual  fact  as  given  by  St. 
Luke,  that  He  was  obedient  to  His  parents — modest, 
sweet,  gentle,  full  of  grace  and  piety,  beloved  of 
God  and  man.  He  has  thus  sanctified  childhood  and 
youth,  that  most  beautiful  epoch  of  human  life,  and 
made  Himself  the  patron  and  model  of  childhood's 
sunny  existence. 

Our  Saviour's  home  during  all  these  happy  years 
was  the  little  Galilean  city  of  Nazareth.  It  is  now 
almost  exactly  what  it  was  in  the  olden  time.  It 
lies  some  miles  westward  from  Lake  Genesareth,  in 
a  picturesque  opening  of  the  range  of  hills  which  is 
the  southern  boundary  of  the  plain  of  Ksdrelon. 

There    are     to- 
day,    travellers 
tell  us,  the  same 
kind   of  houses 
in     which     the 
Holy    Family 
dwelt    scattered 
along    the   nar- 
row  street  s — 
small        and 
square,       with 
walls   of   rough    stone, 
windows  few  and  small, 
roofs  flat.     Little  groups  of 
trees  are  seen,  sycamores  and 
cypresses,  all  so  old  that  one 


STAIRS  AND  TERRACES  OF  HOUSES  IN  GALILEE. 


THE  WORKSHOP  AT  NAZARETH, 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  JESUS.  log 

can  fancy  the  ' '  Son 
of  Joseph  the  carpen- 
ter "  having  enjoyed 
their  shade  as  He 
took  His  noon-day 
rest  in  the  long  ago. 
When  the  sun  has 
set,  the  groups  of 
men  and  their  wives 
and  little  ones  chat 
together  in  the  even- 
ing air,  and  are  seen 
before  bed-time  en- 
gaged in  their  even- 
ing prayers,  just  as 
the  Holy  Family  was  wont  to  do.  There  is  the 
spring  from  which  during  so  many  ages  the  villagers 
have  got  their  supply  of  water,  and  we  can  fancy 
Mary  and  her  little  Boy  amid  the  groups  that  now 
pass  to  and  fro  with  their  water-jugs.  We  hear 
boys  at  play,  and  we  know  that  the  Boy  Jesus 
played  and  laughed  and  was  merry  with  other  boys, 
right  upon  these  same  great  rocks  and  up  and  down 
these  same  sloping  hills. 

Here  is  a  carpenter  shop,  without  the  least  doubt 
just  like  the  one  in  which  Jesus  lived  and  worked 
and  from  which  He  went  forth  to  be  baptized  by  John. 
Everything  tells  of  very  limited  means,  but  there  is 
no  sign  of  actual  penury.  It  is  not  imagination,  it  is 
the  valid  reproduction  of  reality  which  shows  us  here 
the  Holy  Family  :  a  grave-looking  man  in  the  prime 
of  life  is  at  work,  his  wife  looks  on,  both  smile  at  their 
little  Boy  as  He  plays  among  the  shavings.  The  little 
shop  is  backed  by  the  hill-side  into  which  a  chamber 
has  been  excavated.  There  is  a  rack  in  which  the 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

tools  are  set,  saws  and  axes  and 
chisels,  and  there  are  various 
little  piles  of  rough  boards.  In 
such  a  dwelling  lived  Jesus  and 
Mary  and  Joseph  between  the 
return  from  Egypt  and  the  be- 
ginning of  His  public  life. 

Mary,  adhering  to  the  custom 
of  Oriental  mothers,  weaned  her 
Child  only  after  two  years,  cele- 
brating the  event  with  the  festive 
union  of  neighbors  and  relations. 
At  the  age  of  five  the  father 
began  to  teach  the  Boy  the  law 
of  God.  Thus  the  carpenter 
shop  was  ever  associated  in  the  memory  of  Jesus 
with  the  wonderful  things  told  of  God's  people  in 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  the  sublime  principles 
and  precepts  of  the  Mosaic  law. 


A  CARPENTER'S 
SHOP  IN  THE 

EAST. 


And  the  Child  grew,  and  waxed  strong,  full  of  wis- 
;  and  the  grace  of  God  was  in  him  "  (Luke  ii.  40). 


JESUS  AMONG  THE  DOCTORS  OF  THE  LA  W.       107 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   CHII.D  JESUS  AMONG  THE  DOCTORS   OF  THE 

Luke  ii.  4.1—50. 

AT  the  age  of  twelve,  when,  with  the  precocity  of 
the  youth  of  Eastern  lands,  Jesus  began  to  widen 
the  reach  of  His  mental  faculties,  He  gave  Mary  and 
Joseph  a  momentary  glimpse  of  His  great  mission. 
The  visit  of  Jesus,  His  parents  all  unknowing,  to  the 
precincts  of  the  Temple,  and  what  happened  there,  is 
a  connecting  link  between  the  Presentation  and  His 
appearance  as  Messias  on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan. 
The  divine  zeal  of  Jesus  was  not  visible  in  early 
childhood,  but  the  heart  of  the  Boy  was  ablaze  with 
it,  and  He  allowed  it  suddenly  to  burst  forth  eighteen 
years  before  His  public  manifestation, 
and  then  as  suddenly  to  sink  back 
within  its  secret  receptacle. 

The  age  of  twelve  was  an  important 
epoch  in  a  Jewish  boy's  life.  Then 
the  law  laid  its  hard  hand  on  him, 
and  at  the  same  time  dispensed  its 
spiritual  privileges.  Of  the  latter  a 
special  favor  was  assisting  at  the  majes- 
tic solemnities  of  the  Temple  during 
the  feasts  of  the  Pasch,  or  Passover, 
and  those  of  Tabernacles  and  Pente- 
cost. Women  might  attend  if  they 
wished,  and  often  went  with  the  men 
and  boys,  as  did  Mary  on  this  first 
occasion  of  our  Saviour's  pilgrimage 
to  the  holy  places. 

If  we  bear  in  mind  that  Jesus,  even 
in  childhood,  could  never  have  been 
unconscious  of  His  divine  nature  and  « « Going  up  to  Jerusalem"  (Luke  ii.  42). 


Io8  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

His  mission  of  redemption,  we  can 
understand  how  deeply  the  Passover 
festival  must  have  moved  Him,  now 
witnessed  for  the  first  time.  Its 
symbols  all  pointed  to  Himself ,  its 
memorials  were  all  to  be  made  living 
realities  in  His  own  career.  When 
the  ceremonies  were  over,  and  the 
time  came  to  depart  homeward,  He 
clung  to  the  Temple  by  an  instinct 
of  ownership  too  strong  to  be  resist- 
ed. Why  not  begin  now  ? — such 
was  His  thought.  Samuel  had  be- 
gun even  earlier.  The  Divine  Spirit 
mastered  Him,  and  when  His  mother 
and  father  started  towards  Nazareth 
He  could  not  help  returning  into  the 
Temple.  "Born  to  give  testimony 
to  the  truth" — He  will  describe 
His  mission  in  these  words  one  day 
to  Pontius  Pilate  —He  would  now 
make  a  beginning  of  that  glorious 
ministry,  and  He  would  do  it  in  the  Temple,  the  very 
heart  of  His  race  and  His  religion. 

Meantime  Mary  and  Joseph,  journeying  home- 
ward, did  not  at  first  miss  their  Child.  He  might 
easily  be  lost  to  view  in  a  long-drawn-out  caravan, 
made  up  of  relatives,  friends,  neighbors,  separated  into 
different  groups,  some  mounted  on  camels  or  asses, 
some  trudging  along  on  foot,  the  entire  company 
conversing  about  the  events  of  the  holy  week,  or 
chanting  the  Psalms  of  David.  Perhaps  Mary  and 
Joseph  were  for  a  time  separated  from  each  other, 
and  when  Jesus  went  back  to  the  Temple  the  mother 
may  have  thought  Him  with  Joseph,  and  he  have 


"I    MUST    BE    ABOUT    MY     FATHER'S    BUSI- 
NESS." 

And  his  parents  went  every  year  to  Jeru- 
salem, at  the  solemn  day  of  the  pasch. 
And  when  he  was  twelve  years  old,  they 
going1  up  into  Jerusalem  according  to  the 
custom  of  the  feast,  and  having  fulfilled 
the  days,  when  they  returned,  the  child 
JESUS  remained  in  Jerusalem :  and  his 
parents  knew  it  not.  And  thinking  that 
he  was  in  the  company,  they  came  a  day's 
journey,  and  sought  him  among  their 
kinsfolks  and  acquaintances.  And  not 
finding  him,  they  returned  into  Jerusalem, 
seeking  him.  And  it  came  to  pass,  that 
after  three  days  they  found  him  in  the 
temple,  sitting  in  the  midst  of  the  doctors, 
hearing  them,  and  asking  them  questions. 
And  all  that  heard  him  were  astonished 
at  his  wisdom,  and  his  answers.  And 
seeing  him,  they  wondered.  And  *his 
mother  said  to  him  :  Son,  why  hast  thou 
done  so  to  us  ?  behold,  thy  father  and  I 
have  sought  thee  sorrowing.  And  he  said 
to  them  :  How  is  it  that  you  sought  me  ? 
did  you  not  know  that  I  must  be  about 
my  Father's  business  ?  And  they  under- 
stood not  the  word  that  he  spoke  unto 
them.  And  he  went  down  with  them,  and 
came  to  Nazareth,  and  was  subject  to 
them.  And  his  mother  kept  all  these 
words  in  her  heart.  And  Jesus  advanced 
in  wisdom,  and  age,  and  grace  with  God 
and  men. 


SHILOH. 


JESUS  AMONG  THE  DOCTORS  OF  THE  LA  W.        109 

fancied  the  Boy  to  be  with  His  mother  :  and  so 
the  first  day  passed  without  anxiety.     But  when 
the   evening    halt    was    reached    at    Sichem    or 
Shiloh,   and  the  scattered    members   of    families 
came  together  to  arrange  for  the  night,  the  dis- 
tress of  Mary  and  Joseph  was  extreme :  the  Boy 
Jesus  did  not  appear,   He  was  not  to   be  found. 
After  an  anxious   night  the   holy   couple  started 
back   to  Jerusalem,  arriving    there    only  at  nightfall, 
and  darkness  and  the  confusion  of  departing  caravans 
hindered  further  search  till  the  morning  ;  and  that  was 
the  third  day.     Finally  they  found  Him  "in  the  Tem- 
ple, sitting  in  the  midst  of  the  doctors,  hearing  them 
and  asking  them  questions." 

There  were  three  rooms  set  apart  for  purposes  of 
instruction  in  the  Temple,  and  in  one  of  them  sat 
Jesus,  not  on  a  doctor's  seat,  but  lower  down  as  an  in- 
quirer. Dur- 
ing the  two 
previous  days 
He  had  sat 
there  by  in- 
vitation, al- 
ready a  favor- 
ite disciple. 
They  were 
astonished  at 
His  wisdom 
and  His  an- 
swers to  the 
difficult  ques- 
tions with 
which  they 

soon   began 

+^    «.1      TT:  "  Tne7  found  him  in  the  midst  of  the  doctors,  hearing  them  and  asking 

to    ply  Him;  them  questions"  (Luke  ii.  46). 


S20  LIFE  OF  JESUS 

they  made  the  beautiful  Boy  the  centre  of  an  admir- 
ing circle.  The  rabbis  taught  usually  by  question 
and  answer,  now  interrogating  their  pupils,  again 
drawing  out  the  latter 's  questions,  and  thus  more 
accurately  imparting  doctrine.  The  clearness  of  the 
answers  Jesus  gave,  the  originality  of  His  statement, 
the  freedom  from  formalism  of  this  first  exponent 
of  the  new  teaching,  both  pleased  and  puzzled  the 
rigid  doctors  of  the  law :  they  began  to  think  that  a 
transcendent  religious  genius  was  dawning  in  this 
unknown  Boy  whom  they  had  seated  among  theme 
Ivet  us  admire  the  humility  of  this  divine  Master,  who 
thus  begins  to  teach  by  submitting  to  be  a  disciple. 

From  what  Mary  said  to  Jesus  as  she  ran  to  Him 
and  embraced  Him  we  must  believe  that  nothing  in 
her  Son's  life  heretofore  had  prepared  her  for  this 
occurrence.  Both  she  and  Joseph  were  greatly  struck 
by  this  sudden  change.  They  could  not  help  being 
proud  of  Him,  as  they  saw  those  gray-beards  of  the 
Temple  under  the  spell  of  their  Boy's  words  ;  powerful 
words,  glowing  face,  transfigured  form.  Joseph  did 
not  speak.  He  was,  it  everywhere  appears,  a  natural- 
ly silent  man,  and  no  speech  or  word  of  his  is  recorded 
in  Scripture ;  Joseph  now  said  nothing.  But  Mary's 
heart  burst  forth:  "Son,  why  hast  Thou  done  so  to 
us  ?  Behold  Thy  father  and  I  have  sought  Thee  sorrow- 
ing." The  fears  of  a  loving  heart  deafen  reason,  for 
Mary  herself  might  have  answered  that  question  by 
remembering  the  angel's  word  at  her  conception  of 
Jesus.  Her  Child  quickly  recalled  her  to  a  calmer 
mind  :  ' '  And  He  said  to  them :  How  is  it  that  ye, 
sought  Me  ?  Did  you  not  know  that  I  must  be  about 
My  Father's  business?" 

This  sentence,  the  first  recorded  words  of  the 
Messias,  brief  and  quickly  spoken,  is  like  a  tempi?- 


:?ESUS  AMONG  THE  DOCTORS  OF  THE  LA  W.        in 


door  suddenly  flung  open  and  as  suddenly  shut  again  : 
it  opens  wide  for  one  instant   the  whole  life  of  Jesus 
as  the  messenger  of  Heaven.     He  has  but  one  Father, 
God ;  there   is    but   one   occupation   worthy   of   Him, 
the  business  of  the  Father — to   teach   and  save  man- 
kind.    If   He  returns  now  to    Nazareth,    it  will  be   to 
spend  the  eighteen  years  remaining  before  He  begins 
His  public  life  in  teaching  Mary  and  Joseph,  making 
them  overflowing  reservoirs  of  the  waters  of  heavenly 
wisdom  to  be  dispensed  in  all  future  ages  from  their 
happy    places   in   His    Father's   house    above.     They 
are  to  be  His  secret  apostles,  as  the  Twelve  shall  be 
His  public  ones.     The  power 
of  Mary  over  Jesus,   as  His 
Mother  and  as  His  foremost 
disciple,  was  very  fully  shown 
by  His  yielding  to    her  and 
granting   her    His   exclusive 
company   during    the   bloom 
of  His  youth  and  early  man- 
hood,   with    no    protest    but 
His  reminder  of  His  mission 
from  His  Father. 

That  answer  of  Jesus  to' 
His  mother,  respectful  but 
firm,  toned  and  poised  with 
clear  decision  exactly  as  His 
future  utterances  shall  al- 
ways be,  foreshadows  the 
whole  Gospel :  the  divine 
Sonship,  the  Glad  Tidings, 
the  salvation  through  His 
Mediation  and  Atonement. 

She  saw  it  all :   "  His  mother 

,  -,    ,,  ,  "  How  is  it  that  you  sought  me  ?    Did  you  not  know 

kept    all    these  words  in  her    I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business?"  (Lukcii,  49), 


112 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


heart"  ;  and  in  after  years,  when  they  had  been  so 
wonderfully  realized,  she  doubtless  imparted  them  to 
the  Apostles  for  record  in  the  sacred  chronicle.  Mean- 
time He  was  at  Nazareth,  awaiting  His  predestined 
hour ;  to  Mary  and  Joseph  the  world's  Teacher  and 
Redeemer,  to  the  neighbors  only  the  carpenter's  son. 
He  worked  at  His  trade  writh  Joseph,  making  ox- 
yokes,  making  and  mending  ploughs,  bending  over 
His  bench,  His  chisel  in  hand,  or  His  saw  or  hammer, 
and  thus  His  neighbors  knew  Him  until,  eighteen  years 
afterwards,  He  resumed  the  life-work  He  had  claimed 
from  His  parents  in  the  Temple  at  that  memorable 
Passover. 


THE  HIDDEN  LIFE  A  T  NAZARETH.  113 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  HIDDEN  LIFE  AT  NAZARETH. 

Luke  ii.  51,  52. 

HAVING  plainly  shown  His  conscious  touch  with 
His  heavenly  Father's  guiding  hand,  Jesus  yet  "  went 
down  with  [Mary  and  Joseph]  and  came  to  Nazareth, 
and  was  subject  to  them."  Many  a  time  did  Mary's 
eyes  strive  to  penetrate  the  veil  of  her  Son's  hu- 
manity, for  she  must  have  felt  mystified  at  His  choice 
of  Nazareth  in  preference  to  Jerusalem,  the  shop  of 
Joseph  instead  of  the  schools  of  the  Temple  during 
His  early  manhood,  an  era  of  life  when  His  eloquence 
would  have  thrilled  His  hearers  with  youthful  ardor. 
Doubtless  He  .explained  His  Father's  plans  to  her  and 
Joseph,  but  to  all  others  He  was  silent  about  them, 
occupied  with  most  commonplace  things.  His  fellows 
knew  nothing  of  His  future,  of  His  high  religious 
destiny.  Why  did  He  not  at  least  evangelize  them? 
And  why  do  we  not  know  more  of  His  life  during 
the  years  of  manly  exuberance  and  power?  The  an- 
swer to  this  is  that  the  Evangelists  were  not  con- 
cerned with  an  ordinary  narrative,  but  were  chroniclers 
of  a  work  of  God,  a  message  from  heaven,  and  the 
words  and  deeds  of  Jesus  which  had  immediately 
to  do  with  His  Glad  Tidings  absorbed  them  ex- 
clusively. 

But  how  thankful  we  should  be  if  the  Gospels  had 
told  us  something  of  the  personal  appearance  of  Jesus. 
Yet  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  physically  He  was  a 
noble  and  striking  figure,  for  St.  Luke  tells  us  of 
His  increase  in  stature  in  such  terms  as  to  indicate 
a  full  manly  development.  Hence,  in  common  with 
all  modem  writers,  we  reject  the  fancy  of  certain 


114 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


.HE  SON  OF  THE 
CARPENTER. 


early   Fathers,  that   He   was  of  low  size 
and   mean  appearance.      He   was    a   full- 
sized  and  handsome  man — more  than  this 
we  cannot  be  sure  of.     Devout  imagina- 
tion has  guided   Christian   art  in  depict- 
ing   our    Saviour;    but  to  attribute    any 
present  known  likeness  to  apostolic   times  is  not 
justified   by  historical  research. 
It   is   altogether   in  accord  with  the   divine  plan 
that  this  new  head  of  the  human  race  should  be  an 
ideal  man  physically,  as  He  was  spiritually.     Jesus 
was   a  perfectly   formed  specimen   of  His    race,   of 
robust  constitution,    vigorous  strength,    and   manly 
dignity.     That    He    was  a  carpenter    and    steadily 
worked  at  His  trade    was    but    an   additional   help 
to   symmetry   of  form.     And   it  was  also  consistent 
with  intellectual  development,  for  the  doctors  of  the 
Jewish  law  learned  trades  and  worked  at  them,  and 
were  thus  self-supporting  and  independent.     Manual 
labor  during  some  hours   of   the  student's  day  has 
ever  been  of  assistance  in  mental  development. 

Furthermore,  our  Saviour  chose  the  working- 
man's  state  of  life  for  a  special  purpose.  He  did 
so  in  order  to  cure  a  fatal  social  disease.  In  all 
ages  the  leisured  classes  have  looked  upon  artisans 
and  laborers  as  an  inferior  caste  by  the  very  nature 
of  their  occupations.  This  is  one  of  the  most  obsti- 
nate of  human  delusions.  Jesus  would  have  us  know 
that  as  between  the  two  conditions,  poverty  and  afflu- 
ence, He  preferred  the  former.  Toil  is  not  degrading 
but  elevating — bodily  toil  and  its  attendant  hardships. 
It  was  in  pursuance  of  His  Father's  decree — that  man 
shall  eat  his  bread  in  the  sweat  of  his  face — that  Jesus 
chose  to  be  a  working-man.  God's  general  providence 
became  His  Divine  Son's  special  choice,  as  a  reflect- 


THE  HIDDEN  LIFE  A  T  NAZARETH.  1 1 5 

ing  mind  could  easily  see  would  be   the  case.     The 
typical    Man   is    the   common   man.     No    exceptional 
state    of  honor  or    ease    could    content    Jesus.     The 
noble  virtues  of  entire  resignation  to  the  Divine  Will, 
of  patience  in  enduring  adversity,  fortitude  in  resisting 
despondency — are   not    all   these  best   gained  in   that 
condition  of  straitened  means  inseparable  from 
the  workman's  humble  condition  ?     Sordidness 
of  soul  is  not  a  trait  of  the  common  man ;  but 
he  is  marked  by  generosity,  unselfishness,  in- 
dependence   of    character,    self-restraint ;    and 

,     _.    ..    ,  .        .   .,  ,      -  ,,        ,.       .AXCIENT  PLOUGH,  YOKES,  SHABES,  ASD  «uJ 

towards  God,  his  privilege  is  the  full  realiza- 
tion of    what  it  means  to    live    upon    the    Heavenly 
Father's  daily  bounty. 

Jesus  would  prove  by  His  choice  of  the  carpenter's 
shop  that  neither  the  gifts  of  fortune  nor  high  social 
position  are  needed  for  human  welfare,  or  even  for 
exerting  a  powerful  influence  upon  one's  fellow-men. 

Hence  the  example  of  Jesus  the  working-man  has 
had  a  most  powerful  influence  upon  human  society. 
It  has  made  the  lot  of  the  toiler  an  enviable  one  for 
all  religious  men  and  women,  and  Jesus  has 
drawn  into  that  condition  by  free  choice  the 
noblest  spirits  among  those  of  His  servants 
who  were  born  to  riches. 

And  so  during  eighteen  years  the  God- 
man  worked  at  ordinary  country  carpenter- 
ing. What  would  not  one  give  if  he  could 
have  a  bench  or  a  table  which  Jesus  made  YOKE  FOR  OXEN* 


a  hatchet  or  plane  which  He  had  used  ?  But 
such  relics  are  unknown.  God  willed  not  only  to  bless 
the  lowly  station  of  life  by  His  Son's  choice  of  it,  but 
also  to  conceal  His  Son  under  the  disguise  of  a  simple 
mechanic. 

He  "was  obedient"  to  Joseph  and  Mary.     He  was 


n6  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

a  model  son.  Filial  affection  overflowed  His  soul,  not 
only  for  His  mother,  but  for  Joseph,  her  chaste  spouse. 
His  own  loving  foster-father.  Joseph  must  have  died 
not  many  years  after  the  Finding  in  the  Temple  ;  other- 
wise we  should  hear  of  him  in  attendance  upon  the  pub- 
lic ministry  of  his  Son.  Hence,  at  our  Lord's  second 
public  appearance  as  a  teacher  in  the  synagogue  at 
Nazareth,  His  family  designation  is  of  His  mother, 
as  well  as  of  His  father  :  "Is  not  this  the  carpenter, 
the  son  of  Mary  ?  "  Even  His  cousins,  James,  Joseph, 
Jude,  and  Simon,  sons  of  Cleophas  and  of  Mary's  sister, 
were  unaware  of  the  supernatural  character  of  Jesus. 
But  His  mother  was  brimming  over  with  knowledge  and 
love  of  His  true  self.  In  her  alone,  after  Joseph's 
death,  did  He  find  a  soul  worthy  of  His  most  sacred 
confidence.  With  her  He  spoke  of  the  prophets  and 
patriarchs,  and  with  her  He  sometimes  spoke  even  of 
the  dreaded  and  yet  longed-for  "  business  of  the 
Father." 

Thus  Mary's  soul  became  the  rich  casket  in  which 
Jesus  first  placed  the  pearl  of  great  price,  His  Gospel. 
St.  Luke  tells  us  also  that  He  gained  the  favor  of  all 
men — gentle,  kind,  generous,  it  is  easy  to  understand 
why.  He  was  lovable  by  the  openness  of  His  nature 
and  the  elevation  of  His  sentiments.  For  even  if  He 
must  conceal  His  divine  qualities,  He  could  not  hide 
His  human  ones.  Jesus  was  the  nearest  friend  of  every 
living  soul,  and  He  must  show  it. 

Furthermore,  we  know  that  Jesus  must  have  been 
very  susceptible  to  the  lessons  of  nature.  The  earth 
and  the  sun  and  the  heavenly  bodies,  the  trees  and  the 
growing  grain,  the  very  beasts,  all  spoke  a  language  to 
Him  but  vaguely  guessed  at  by  the  poets.  How  all  na- 
ture prayed  when  Jesus  prayed  on  the  green  hill- top  ! 
How  the  whispering  wind  and  the  genial  sunshine,  and 


THE  HIDDEN  LIFE  A  T  NAZARETH. 


117 


the  musical  notes  of  the  birds,  the  happy  voices  of  the 
little  children,  the  murmur  of  the  brooks,  the  bright 
tints  of  the  flowers,  the  welcome  rain — how  all  were  elo- 
quent of  God  to  the  heart  of  Jesus  Christ  at  Nazareth  ! 
And  this  we  see  in  aftertimes  when  He  uses  all  this  in 
illustrating  His  teaching.  Little  dared  He  venture  to 
exercise  His  power  over  men's  minds  ;  yet  He  was  the 
faithful  friend,  He  was  the  kind  fellow- workman,  He 
was  the  pleasant  companion  of  a  restful  hour,  He  was 
the  soothing  consoler  of  an  afflicted  household — all  this 
He  was  as  true  man,  no  less  certainly  than 
He  was  Mary's  true  Son. 

If  nature  was  His  open  book  of  God,  and 
if  life  with  men  was  His  daily  duty,  so  was 
God's  written  word  His  constant  meditation. 
Our  joy  in  reading  the  divine  pages  of  the 
Old  Testament  is  greatly  enhanced  by  the 
certainty  that  Jesus  read  them  daily  with  the 
tenderest  piety.  Who  has  ever  read  the  Old 
Testament  as  Jesus  read  it  ?  He  was  a  per- 
fect Hebrew  in  race  and  in  religion,  and  the 
Hebrew  blood  and  faith  were  inseparably 
joined  to  the  Book.  In  every  hero  and  every 
great  happening  He  saw  Himself  prefigured. 
But  Jesus  took  no  sides  in  the  miserable  divisions  of 
His  people.  He  scorned  the  puerile  subtilty  of  the 
Pharisees ;  His  great  soul  detested  their  formalism. 
He  spurned  the  polished  materialism  of  the  Sadducees. 
The  fatalistic  errors  of  the  Essenes,  as  well  as  their 
false  asceticism,  He  condemned.  He  was  a  perfect 
Israelite  in  being  simply  Himself.  His  soul  was  fed 
by  God  through  every  medium  of  divine  life — reason, 
revelation,  nature,  communion  with  men  and  women, 
especially  Mary  and  Joseph,  the  natural  teachers  of 
His  youth,  having  always  the  ineffably  privilege  of 


ii8  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

immediate  intercourse  with  the  divine  nature  with 
which  He  was  personally  one.  As  a  man  He  was 
entirely  human  ;  but  wholly  original  was  His  mental 
and  moral  force.  When  He  began  to  teach,  all  could 
understand,  none  could  quite  master  His  doctrine — it 
fed  at  the  same  time  that  it  stimulated  the  soul's  ap- 
petite for  truth.  He  spoke  the  thoughts  of  eternity 
in  the  words  of  time. 

And  thus  it  was  that  Jesus  waited  at  His  home, 
aeither  hurried  nor  sluggish,  but  just  where  and  when 
and  how  the  Father  willed.  Such  a  being  as  Jesus  can 
afford  to  wait,  for  He  knows  that  when  He  begins  He 
shall  succeed.  He  who  patiently  waits  God's  hour  is, 
when  that  hour  strikes,  as  strong  as  God. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  is  to  the  mother  of 
Jesus  that  we  owe  the  simple  and  entrancing  story  of  the 
birth  and  early  days  of  the  Saviour.  She  had  laid  up 
in  her  heart  everything  that  happened,  and  gave  it  with 
those  sweet  touches  of  guileless  nature,  those  loving 
accents  of  unfathomed  maternal  love,  which  make  the 
narrative  in  Luke  and  Matthew  the  unique  poem  of 
Heaven's  wooing  and  winning  the  hearts  of  men.  In 
after  years,  when  Mary  had  shared  with  the  Apostles 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  they  must  many  a  time  have 
gathered  about  her  and  urged  her  to  repeat  again  and 
again  the  divine  narrative  of  the  infancy  of  Jesus,  and 
His  hidden  life  at  Nazareth.  These  accounts  were  dis- 
tinctly remembered  and  carefully  noted,  and  afterwards 
embodied  in  the  Gospels. 


BOOK  II. 


The  Public  Life  of  Jesus. 


PALISADES  OF  THE  JORDAN. 


THE  PUBLIC  LIFE  OF  JESUS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

JOHN    THE    BAPTIST    PREPARES    THE   WAY   FOR    JESUS. 
Matt.  Hi.  i—io ;  Mark  i.  2-6  ;  Luke  Hi.  1—14. 

THE  moral  revolution  which  John  the  Baptist 
wrought  among  the  Jewish  people  is  a  fact  of  history, 
and  is  witnessed  no  less  by  Josephus  than  by  the  Evan- 
gelists. It  was  as  sudden  and  dramatic  as  it  was  salu- 
tary. He  emerged  from  the  desert  of  Judea  alone  and 
unheralded,  but  as  he  began  to  preach  penance  for  sin 
on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan  his  words  shook  men's 
hearts  like  the  voice  of  thunder — "  a  voice  crying  in  the 
wilderness,  make  straight  the  way  of  the  Lord."  Mul- 
titudes flocked  to  hear  him.  His  personality  was  in 
itself  a  powerful  sermon.  His  clothing  was  a  scanty 
garment  of  camel's  hair  fastened  by  a  leathern  girdle. 
His  hair  and  beard  had  never  been  cut,  his  head  and 
feet  always  bare.  He  was  about  thirty  years  old,  but 
the  life  of  a  hermit,  in  silence  and  prayer  and  bodily 

121 


122 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


14  Do  penance :  for  the 
ingdom  of  heaven  is  at 
and  "  (Matt.  iii.  2). 


austerity,  had  prepared  every  faculty  for  his 
great  and  peculiar  vocation  from  on  high,  name- 
ly, the  ambassadorship  of  the  terrible  Jehovah. 
The  Holy  Spirit  had  sent  him  out  to  the  people  to 
prepare  their  souls  for  their  Messias,  and  he  did 
so  with  an  austere  eloquence — with  the  piercing 
tones,  pale  face,  and  blazing  eyes  of  a  hermit  trans- 
formed into  a  preacher  of  penance. 

John  appeared  during  the  high-priesthood  of  An- 
nas and  Caiphas,  about  the  seven  hundred  and 
eightieth  year  of  the  City  of  Rome,  during  the  reign 
of  the  Emperor  Tiberius  Caesar. 

The  Precursor  was  a  very  different  being  from 
Him  of  whom  he  was  to  be  the  herald,  and  before 
whom  he  will  bend  in  lowly  adoration.  Yet  he  is 
perfect  in  his  own  kind — severe,  threatening,  over- 
powering messenger  of  the  jealous  God  of  the 
Hebrews.  Before  the  vices  of  the  crowd  he  is  fear- 
less ;  no  less  so  in  resisting  the  pretensions  of  the 
Pharisees ;  undaunted  in  reproving  the  crimes  of  the 
monarch  from  whose  cruel  hands  he  receives  the 
crown  of  martyrdom. 

It  was  not  in  the  Temple,  therefore,  that  John  was 
fitted  for  his  mission,  but  from  very  childhood  he  had 
lived  in  the  "  deserts  of  Judea."  This  is  a  frightful  re- 
gion of  desolate  hills  and  ravines  on  the  west  shore  of 
the  Dead  Sea,  whose  only  life  is  an  occasional  stunted 
tree,  a  few  birds  of  prey  and  savage  beasts — the  entire 
region  visibly  marked  with  the  curse  of  God,  for  it 
shared  the  punishment  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrha.  In 
solitary  caves  or  in  the  shadow  of  rocks  dwelt  John, 
breaking  his  long  fasts  with  wild  honey  or  locusts, 
drawing  in  with  every  breath  the  sadness  of  man's  re- 
volt against  God,  every  object  he  saw  preaching  to  him 
the  terrors  of  the  divine  wrath.  This  is  the  man  called 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST. 


123 


by  Isaias  an  angel — angel  indeed  of 
heavenly  warning  :  "I  will  send  My 
angel  before  thy  face  to  prepare  thy 
way."  Kvery  day  of  his  solitary 
life  he  grew  more  and  more  like 
Elias,  the  terrible  prophet  of  old, 
till,  as  we  shall  see,  the  people  who 
heard  him  thought  he  was  that 
great  ambassador  of  the  Most  High 
returned  again  to  Israel.  But  he 
was  more  than  prophet  and  more 
than  Klias,  for  his  singular  glory  is 
in  the  words  of  Jesus,  that  ' '  greater 
man  than  John  the  Baptist  never 
was  born  of  woman."  He  was  the 
best  of  the  old  people  of  God,  in 
whom  lineage,  the  fact  of  birth  and 
the  quality  of  blood — ' '  born  of  wo- 
man " — was  the  outer  mark  of  elec- 
tion. He  had  the  inward  graces 
symbolized  by  Hebrew  legitimacy 
in  higher  degree  than  any  of  his 
ancestors :  fear  of  God,  zeal  and 
courage  against  vice  and  error, 
mastery  of  the  animal  instincts. 
Yet  those  born  not  of  woman  nor  of 
blood  nor  of  any  race  but  of  God 
are  all  superior  to  John  in  kind 
though  by  no  means  in  degree  of 
sanctification.  "The  least  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  greater  than 
lie  "  who  was  the  greatest  in  earth's 
highest  kingdom — the  people  of 
Israel.  He  was,  furthermore,  the 
best  exponent  of  the  natural  virtues 


THE    PREACHING    OF    JOHN. 

Now  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  the  reign  of 
Tiberius  Csesar,  Pontius  Pilate  being  gov- 
ernor of  Judea,  and  Herod  being  tetrarch 
of  Galilee,  and  Philip  his  brother  being 
tetrarch  of  Iturea,  and  the  country  of 
Trachonitis,  and  Lysanias  tetrarch  of  Abi- 
lina,  under  the  high-priests  Annas  and 
Caiphas  :  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to 
John,  the  son  of  Zachary,  in  the  desert. 
[And  he]  came  preaching  in  the  desert  of 
Judea ;  and  saying :  Do  penance :  for 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand.  And 
he  came  into  all  the  country  about  the  Jor- 
dan, preaching  the  baptism  of  penance,  for 
the  remission  of  sins,  as  it  is  written  in  the 
book  of  the  words  of  Isaias  the  prophet : 
Behold,  I  send  my  Angel  before  thy  face, 
who  shall  prepare  thy  way  before  thee. 
A  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness  : 
Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord :  make 
his  paths  straight.  Every  valley  shall  be 
filled,  and  every  mountain  and  hill  shall  be 
brought  low  ;  and  the  crooked  shall  be 
made  straight,  and  the  rough  ways  plain. 
And  all  flesh  shall  see  the  salvation  of 
God.  And  John  himself  had  his  garment 
of  camel's  hair,  and  a  leathern  girdle  about 
his  loins ;  and  his  food  was  locusts  and 
wild  honey.  Then  went  out  to  him  Jeru- 
salem and  all  Judea,  and  all  the  country 
about  Jordan  :  And  they  were  baptized  by 
him  in  the  Jordan,  confessing  their  sins. 
And  seeing  many  of  the  Pharisees  and 
Sadducees  coming  to  his  baptism,  he  said 
to  them  :  Ye  brood  of  vipers,  who  hath 
showed  you  tp  flee  from  the  wrath  to 
come  ?  Bring  forth,  therefore,  fruit  worthy 
of  penance  :  And  think  not  to  say  within 
yourselves :  We  have  Abraham  for  our 
father  :  for  I  tell  you,  that  God  is  able  of 
these  stones  to  raise  up  children  to  Abra- 
ham. For  now  the  axe  is  laid  to  the 
root  of  the  trees.  Every  tree,  therefore, 
that  yieldeth  not  good  fruit,  shall  be  cut 
down,  and  cast  into  the  fire.  And  the 
people  asked  him,  saying:  What  then 
shall  we  do  ?  And  he  answering  said  to 
them  :  He  that  hath  two  coats,  let  him  give 
to  him  that  hath  none  ;  and  he  that  hath 
meat,  let  him  do  in  like  manner.  And  the 
publicans  also  came  to  be  baptized,  and 
said  to  him :  Master,  what  shall  we  do  ? 
But  he  said  to  them  :  Do  nothing  more 
than  that  which  is  appointed  you.  And 
the  soldiers  also  asked  him,  saying  :  And 
what  shall  we  do  ?  And  he  said  to  them  : 
Do  violence  to  no  man  ;  neither  calumniate 
any  man ;  and  be  content  with  your  pay. 


124  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

of  man.  In  him  temperance,  fidelity  to  truth,  cour- 
age, self-control,  fortitude  were  elevated  to  their  high- 
est natural  development  by  the  best  instrumentality, 
the  law  of  Moses. 

John's  baptism  was  but  a  holy  symbol  of  repent- 
ance, not  a  channel  of  grace  as  the  rite  afterwards 
became  in  the  baptism  of  Jesus  and  His  Holy  Spirit 
after  Pentecost..  But  John  was  thoroughgoing.  He 
demanded  interior  sorrow  for  sin  and  earnest  purpose 
of  amendment,  shown  and  proved  by  confession  and 
good  works. 

The  entire  people  were  deeply  moved  by  his  words 
and  crowded  the  banks  of  the  Jordan,  near  where 
it  falls  into  the  Dead  Sea,  the  point  at  which  the 
terrible  preacher  had  taken  his  stand.  All  came: 
hardened  publicans  and  zealots  for  the  law  jostled 
one  another  in  his  auditory ;  learned  and  simple  were 
there  together  in  humble  equality.  They  made  sincere 
confession  before  baptism,  answering  thereby  an  instinc- 
tive craving  of  the  true  penitent,  who,  after  acknowl- 
edging guilt  in  the  inner  sanctuary,  longs  to  unveil 
it  outwardly  to  a  faithful  friend  and  suffer  him  to  ex- 
tract the  venom  and  apply  a  healing  ointment.  As 
the  baptism  of  John  foreshadowed  the  initial  sacra- 
ment of  the  new  religion,  so  did  the  true  confession 
of  his  penitents  foreshadow  the  new  sacrament  of 
penance,  which  secures  pardon  by  the  sinner's  humble 
and  sorrowful  avowal  of  his  transgressions. 

When  John  raised  his  reproving  voice  and  struck 
the  Jewish  race-pride,  he  struck  home.  Seed  of  Abra- 
ham :  that  was  to  many  Jews  the  cure-all  of  every 
vice.  But  John  witnessed  to  the  people  of  Israel 
that  the  God  of  Jew  and  Gentile  could  turn  stones 
into  sons  of  Abraham.  It  was  a  mighty  proclamation 
of  the  new  and  spiritual  lineage,  that  of  Sons  of  God. 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST.  125 

This  was  a  bitter  truth  to  many  of  the  Pharisees  who 
ranked  racial  descent  as  an  indispensable  requisite  of 
divine  favor.  These  broke  with  him  at  once.  Others 
of  the  Scribes  and  elders,  more  discerning,  lingered  on, 
and  he  taught  them  the  first  lesson  of  the  coming  life  : 
11  He  that  hath  two  coats,  let  him  give  to  him  that 
hath  none ;  and  he  that  hath  meat,  let  him  do  in 
like  manner."  Love  is  now  become,  even  in  this 
first  step  of  the  new  way,  the  whole  law  and  the 
prophets.  Then  came  the  publicans,  the  tax-gather- 
ers ;  and  to  these  he  commanded  absolute  honesty — a 
virtue  in  them  as  high  as  charity  in  others.  To  the 
soldiers,  Jews  in  the  Roman  legions,  he  forbade  the 
military  vices  of  extravagance,  gambling,  bullying, 
and  blackmailing.  Such  are  the  outlines  of  John's 
terrible  preaching,  by  means  of  which  vast  throngs 
of  the  people  were  successively  moved  to  true  repent- 
ance for  their  sins  and  made  ready  for  the  Messias. 
It  was  like  the  purification  of  the  Hebrews  in  passing 
through  the  Red  Sea  and  in  hearing  the  messages  of 
God  by  the  mouth  of  Moses  in  the  wilderness  prepara' 
tory  to  entering  the  land  of  promise. 


"  Where  the  Jordan  falls  into  the  Dead  Sea." 


126 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


"  Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord, 
make  straight  his  paths  "  (Matt.  iii.  3). 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    BAPTISM    OF  JESUS. — ' '  THOU    ART    MY    BELOVED 

SON!" 

Matt.  iii.  11-17;    Mark  i.   7-11 ;    Luke  iii.  15-22 ; 
John  i.  15-18. 

BUT  it  was  the  announcement  of  the  coming  of 
the  Messias  that  was  the  most  exciting  theme  of 
John's  preaching.  The  Jews  were  essentially  a  Mes- 
sianic people,  their  hopes  all  centering  on  the  pro- 
phecies which  promised  them  a  saviour.  Every  senti- 
ment of  religion  vibrated  like  the  deepest  chords  of  a 
harp  when  this  powerful  preacher  proclaimed  that 
the  Messias  was  even  now  at  hand.  Even  carnal 
motives,  love  of  race  and  of  power,  thirst 
for  revenge  upon  the  pagan  tyrants, 
mingled  with  spiritual  motives  and 
muddied  their  clear  waters.  No  won- 
der, therefore,  that  the  Baptist's  au- 
thority rose  higher  with  every  discourse, 
and  that  at  length  it  was  whispered 
that  he  was  himself  the  Christ.  At 
the  first  breathing  of  this  suspicion 
John  exclaimed :  "I  indeed  baptize 
you  with  water  :  but  One  mightier  than 
I  cometh,  .the  latchet  of  whose  shoes 
I  am  not  worthy  to  unloose  :  He  shall 
baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
with  fire."  The  Baptist's  function  was 
thus  to  be  the  Forerunner,  zealously  to 
prepare  men's  hearts.  The  Christ  alone 
could  possess  them,  breathe  into  themi 
the  Holy  Spirit,  set  them  afire  with! 
divine  love.  Do  penance  !  Prepare  the 
way  of  the  L,ord  !  he  cried  out  in  tones 


THE  BAPTISM  OF  JESUS. 


127 


of  thunder  :  Down  with  every  mountain  of  pride,  fill 
up  every  dark  valley  of  sin.  All  flesh  shall  see  the  sal- 
vation of  God.  He  is  coming  to  His  threshing  floor ; 
His  fan  is  in  His  hand ;  the  chaff  shall  be  cast  into 
the  fire,  the  wheat  shall  be  gathered  into  His  barn. 
These  words  already  indicated  the  divinity  of  the 
Christ,  and  the  preaching  of  John  was  in  fulfilment  of 
Isaias  :  "Lift  up  thy  voice  with  strength,  thou  that 
bringest  good  tidings  to  Jerusalem,  lift  it  up,  fear  not. 
Say  to  the  cities  of  Juda,  Behold  your  God  cometh  " 
(Is.  xL  9) .  God  is  about  to  appear.  A  great  prophet 
announces  Him  at  the  mouth  of  the  Jordan  near 
Bethany. 

Travellers  crossing  the  river  stopped  and  heard 
him  and  carried  his  fame  everywhere.  His  peni- 
tents returned  home  and  spread 
the  great  news  ;  all  the  race  of 
Israel  is  promptly  informed  of 
it.  The  multitudes  continue  to 
come  and  to  go,  full  of  deep 
sorrow  for  their  sins,  and  no 
less  full  of  expectation  of  the 
Christ.  The  very  locality  is 
eloquent  of  the  holy  destiny  of 
the  people  now  about  to  be 
realized.  There  are  the  twelve 
stones  still  standing,  which  tell 
of  the  tribes  passing  dry  shod 
through  the  river;  there  Elias 
and  Kliseus  had  been  miracu- 
lously ferried  over  the  stream  ; 
and  there  the  former  prophet 
had  been  carried  up  to  heaven 
xin  a  chariot  of  fire  •  from  ad- 
jacent Mount  Nebo  had  Moses  THE  RIVER  JORDAN. 


128 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


hailed  the  Promised  L,and  and  sunk  to  his  rest.  And 
now  on  the  same  spot  the  Jewish  nation  gathered 
about  a  prophet  who  had  received  from  on  high  the 
mission  to  announce  the  Messias. 

"He  who   sent  me,"  said  John,    "to  baptize  with 
water   said   to   me  :    He    upon   whom   thou  shalt   see 
the  Spirit  descending    and  remaining  upon   Him,   He 
it  is   that  baptizeth  with  the  Holy  Ghost."     Of  yore 
the  ancient  covenant  had  been  pro- 
claimed in  the  wilderness,  and  it  was 
God's   will   that   in   the   wilderness 
the  new  dispensation  should  begin, 
proclaimed  by  the  last  and  greatest 
of  the  prophets. 

But  where  was  the  Messias  ?  Why 
did  He  not  appear?  For  six 
months,  as  is  commonly  thought, 
John  had  waited  in  vain,  his  pierc- 
ing eye  eagerly  searching  the  faces 
and  souls  of  his  hearers  to  discover 
the  Messias.  The  people  also  were 
eagerly  looking  out  for  Him.  John 
meanwhile  dwelt  at  length  upon  the 
qualities  of  the  Messias,  exhorting 
his  hearers  to  be  ready  for  Him,  and 
for  His  winnowing  of  the  whole 
people  of  Israel  like  the  winnowing 
of  a  threshing  floor. 

But  at  last  the  hour  has  come. 
Jesus  arrives  at  the  banks  of  the 
Jordan  from  the  mountains  of  Gali- 
lee and  asks  to  be  baptized.  He 
makes  no  distinction  between  Him- 
self and  the  others,  His  neighbors 
and  the  companions  of  His  pilgritn- 


HE    BAPTISM    OF    JESUS    IN    THE   JORDAN. 

And  as  the  people  was  of  opinion,  and 
11  were  thinking  in  their  hearts  of  John, 
lat  perhaps  he  might  be  the  Christ,  John 
nswered,  saying  unto  all :  I  indeed  baptize 
ou  with  water  unto  penance,  but  he  that 
iall  come  after  me  is  mightier  than  I, 
rhose  shoes  I  am  not  worthy  to  bear, — the 
Uchet  of  whose  shoes  I  am  not  worthy  to 
:oop  down  and  loose.  1  have  baptized  you 
rith  water,  but  he  shall  baptize  you  with 
le  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire  Whose  fan 
>  in  his  hand,  and  he  will  thoroughly 
leanse  his  floor,  and  gather  his  wheat  into 
le  barn,  but  the  chaff  he  will  burn  with 
nquenchable  fire.  And  many  other  things 
xhorting,  did  he  preach  to  the  people, 
'hen  cometh  Jesus,  from  Nazareth  of 
ralilee,  to  the  Jordan  unto  John,  to  be 
aptized  by  him.  But  John  stayed  him, 
lying :  I  ought  to  be  baptized  by  thee, 
nd  comest  thou  to  me  ?  And  Jesus  an- 
wering,  said  to  him  :  Suffer  it  to  be  so 
ow,  for  so  it  becometh  us  to  fulfil  all 
istice.  Then  he  suffered  him.  And  Jesus 
eing  baptized,  forthwith  came  out  of  the 
rater ;  and  lo  !  the  heavens  were  opened 
::>  him  ;  and  he  saw  the  spirit  of  God  de- 
cending  in  a  bodily  shape  as  a  dove,  and 
emaining  upon  him.  And  there  came  a 
oice  from  Heaven  :  Thou  art  my  beloved 
ion  ;  in  thee  I  am  well  pleased.  John 
>eareth  witness  of  him,  and  crieth  out, 
aying  :  This  was  he  of  whom  I  spoke  : 
le  that  shall  come  after  me,  is  preferred 
icfore  me  :  because  he  was  before  me. 
^.nd  of  his  fulness  we  all  have  received, 
.nd  grace  for  grace.  For  the  law  was 
;iven  by  Moses,  grace  and  truth  came  by 
ESUS  CHRIST.  No  man  hath  seen  God  at 
.ny  time  :  the  only-begotten  Son  who  is  in 
he  bosom  of  the  Father,  he  hath  declared 
dm. 


THE  BAPTISM  OF  JESUS. 


129 


age.  He  has  so  far  done  nothing  at  home  to  dis- 
tinguish Himself  from  the  rest  of  men.  Doubtless,  a 
few  of  His  acquaintances  had  remarked  a  deeper  wis- 
dom in  His  religious  conversation,  or  a  brighter  lus- 
tre in  His  blameless  life.  But,  they  may  have  thought, 
shall  the  Saviour  come  out  of  Nazareth,  and  be  a 
carpenter  ? 

It  is  an  interesting  question  as  to  how,  at  last, 
John  learned  the  identity  of  Jesus.  The  hermit  life 
of  the  Precursor  had  begun  in  his  very  childhood, 
and  its  seclusion  must  have  been  absolute.  Previous 
to  the  coming  of  Jesus  to  the  Jordan,  John  "knew 
Him  not."  Elizabeth  and  Zachary  had  not  been  per- 
mitted to  disclose  Mary's  secret  to  their  son;  and 
soon  they  departed  to  their  eternal 
rest.  It  was  enough  for  John  that 
he  was  filled  with  the  most  vivid 
sentiment  of  expectation  ;  it  is  re- 
vealed to  him  that  the  Messias  is 
in  Israel  and  that  He  may  at  any 
moment  appear,  and  that  it  shall 
be  his  own  high  office  to  recognize 
and  to  proclaim  Him.  His  personal 
knowledge  of  Jesus,  however,  pre- 
ceded that  which  came  by  the  de- 
scent of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  is  plain 
from  St.  Matthew's  account.  This 
may  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact 
that  John's  penitents  came  "con- 
fessing their  sins."  Jesus  must  go 
through  the  form  of  this.  Sins  of  His  own  He  had 
none,  but  He  would  bewail  to  the  Baptist  the  sins  of 
the  people  whom  He  loved,  and  of  all  humanity; 
lament  their  sad  fate,  speak  of  the  approaching  reign 
of  the  Messias.  The  soul  of  Jesus  in  familiar  commu- 


130  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

nication  with  that  of  John  would  soon  reveal  all — 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the  Messias  Himself! 

O  what  a  joy  was  this !  O  how  pure  was  that 
soul  of  Jesus  !  How  it  mirrored  to  the  ecstatic  gaze 
of  the  austere  hermit  of  the  desert  the  beauty  of  heaven 
itself,  how  its  voice  was  musical  with  the  harmonies 
of  divine  love  !  What  eager  zeal  for  men's  welfare 
was  there,  what  generous  self-devotion  !  Who  can 
tell  what  the  "Saviour  spoke  of  to  this  His  first  disciple 
after  Mary  His  mother  and  Joseph  His  foster-father  : 
His  plans,  His  ideas  of  mercy,  of  repentance,  His 
flashing  lights  of  inspiration  revealing  the  depths 
of  profound  mysteries,  His  perfect  humanity  and  His 
entire  divinity ;  and  when  He  had  ended  pouring 
these  golden  treasures  of  religious  wisdom  and  love 
into  the  rapt  soul  of  John,  Jesus  bowed  down  before 
him  and  begged  to  be  baptized.  But  John  stayed 
Him  and  fell  at  Jesus'  feet.  "  I  ought  to  be  baptized 
by  Thee!  and  comest  Thou  to  me?"  As  if  to  say: 
Can  I  raise  myself  above  Thee,  Thou  Eternal  Son 
of  God  ?  can  I  give  Thee  any  gift — I,  who  have  every- 
thing to  receive  of  Thee?  "And  Jesus  answering 
said  to  him  :  Suffer  it  to  be  so  now.  For  thus  it  be- 
cometh  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness.  Then  he  suffered 
Him." 

We  are  permitted  to  ask  why  Jesus  did  not  baptize 
John,  according  to  his  earnest  request.  The  answer 
is  manifold  :  the  new  rites  of  religion  were  not  yet 
instituted  ;  it  was  God's  will  that  the  last  prophet  and 
hero  of  the  old  law  should  be  entirely  of  it  and  not 
at  all  of  the  new,  so  that  the  synagogue  might 
be  buried  with  honor ;  it  was  the  plan  of  Jesus  to 
keep  secret  His  own  purpose  of  instituting  a  new  sys- 
tem of  external  ordinances.  Therefore,  John  is  to 
lead  the  Hebrew  race  to  the  door  of  the  Church  of 


THE  BAPTISM  OF  JESUS.  131 

Christ,  glance  in  with  longing  eyes  and  die,  as  Moses 
did  at  the  threshold  of  the  land  of  promise.  He  is 
sanctified  by  faith  in  Him  who  is  to  come,  not  by  the 
baptism  of  the  Saviour  and  His  other  sacraments. 

But  why  did  Jesus  take  John's  baptism,  nay,  insist 
upon  it  ?  Because  all  the  righteousness  of  the  ancient 
dispensation  He  would  exhaust  and  fulfil,  and  seal 
with  every  approval,  before  He  begins  to  supplant  it. 
Jesus  begins  as  a  child  of  the  old  covenant,  "  made," 
says  St.  Paul,  "  under  the  law  "  a  member  of  the  Jew- 
ish Church  which  John  now  publicly  represents.  If 
He  saw  fit  to  be  born  a  Jew,  circumcised,  presented 
in  the  Temple,  He  shall  likewise  gladly  join  in  this  holy 
movement  of  penance  among  the  people  of  Israel  and 
fulfil  its  sign  of  righteousness  in  John's  baptism.  Be- 
sides this,  if  John  were  set  by  God  to  point  out  the 
Messias,  the  Messias  would  reciprocate  by  openly  ap- 
proving His  Precursor's  office  in  accepting  the  bap- 
tism of  penance.  The  Heavenly  Father  in  turn  ap- 
proves this  high  purpose  of  the  Son.  It  is  as  Jesus 
comes  forth  from  the  river,  all  dripping  with  its  sacred 
waters,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  descends  and  the  Divine 
Voice  speaks  the  words:  ''This  is  My  Son." 

Thus  Jesus  solemnly  begins  His  work  as  Redeemer, 
by  attaching  it  and  inseparably  linking  it  to  the  work 
of  His  Father,  the  Hebrew's  Jehovah.  Farewell  now 
to  the  peaceful  life  in  quiet  Nazareth.  His  public 
career  is  begun,  a  life  of  hard  struggle,  utter  self- 
devotedness,  total  failure  and  perfect  triumph. 

St.  lyuke  tells  us  how  the  voice  from  Heaven  spoke. 
He  says  that  Jesus  prayed  ^after  His  baptism,  and  as 
His  soul  poured  itself  out  in  filial  love  to  His  Father, 
the  people  meantime  standing  by  and  John  looking  on, 
suddenly  the  heavens  opened  and  the  Holy  Ghost  de- 
scended upon  Him  in  bodily  shape  like  a  dove,  and  a 


132  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

voice  came  from  heaven  which  said  :  * '  Thou  art  My 
beloved  Son  ;  in  Thee  I  am  well  pleased."  Jesus  and 
John  were  alone  privileged  to  witness  this  prodigy,  to 
which  the  latter  afterwards  gave  public  evidence.  Its 
significance  is  nothing  less  than  the  open  manifestation 
of  the  Most  Holy  Trinity.  The  Father  and  Son,  co- 
equal in  every  infinite  attribute  of  the  God-head,  are 
here  shown  in  union  by  the  apparition  of  the  Third  Per- 
son, the  connecting  link  of  the  triune  God.  And  this  is 
not  making  Jesus  God,  but  the  recognition  of  Him  as 
already  God.  The  voice  does  not  say,  "Behold  Him 
who  now  becomes  My  beloved  Son";  but,  "This  is 
My  beloved  Son. ' '  And  the  figure  of  the  dove  is  chosen 
to  represent  that  Divine  Spirit  which  is  all  sweetness, 
purity,  and  loving  kindness. 

And  now,  with  the  loud  and  resistless  word  of  a 
divine  ambassador,  John  proclaims  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as 
the  Messias,, 


THE  PREPARA  TION  IN  THE  DESERT.  133 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE   PREPARATION    IN    THE    DESERT. 
Matt.  iv.  i-n ;  Mark  i.  12,  13;  Luke  iv.  1-13. 

"  AND  Jesus  being  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  returned 
from  the  Jordan,  and  immediately  the  Spirit  drove  Him 
out  into  the  desert.  And  He  was  in  the  desert  forty 
days  and  forty  nights,  and  was  tempted  by  Satan  :  and 
He  was  with  beasts.  And  He  ate  nothing  in  those 
days;  and  when  they  were  ended  He  was  hungry." 
Gratitude  filled  the  soul  of  Jesus  to  overflowing  for  the 
approval  from  on  high  which  had  been  given  Him  at 
the  baptism  of  John  ;  but  also  He  felt  a  dread  at  the 
task  which  was  now  upon  Him,  and  longed  for  solitary 
communion  with  His  Father.  Therefore,  the  Spirit  of 
God  led  Him  into  the  desert  and  gave  Him  there  a 
favorable  place  as  well  to  commune  with  Heaven  as  to 
prepare  for  the  ordeal  of  His  mission.  It  was  probably 
the  desolate  region,  broken,  barren,  and  uninhabited, 
lying  between  Jericho  and  Jerusalem. 

Near  the  ruins  of  Jericho  is  a  high  rocky  eminence, 
and  many  have  thought  that  here  is  the  place  from 
which  Satan  showed  Jesus  ' '  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world. ' '  Among  the  many  caverns  near  the  base  of  this 
mountain  now  dwell  devout  hermits,  who  in  austerity 
and  silence  commemorate  the  Saviour's  forty  days'  fast. 
He  gave  Himself  up  to  the  great  thoughts  which  stirred 
His  soul,  wholly  ignoring  the  wants  of  lower  nature, 
nourishment  of  the  body,  shelter  from  the  weather,  or 
security  from  the  attacks  of  wild  beasts.  Jesus,  thus 
secluded  in  a  wilderness  and  in  denial  of  every  sensible 
joy,  wandered  here  and  there  absorbed  in  the  contem- 
plation of  His  Father's  love  for  the  fallen  race  of  man. 
From  Adam  down  through  all  his  posterity  to  the  latest 


134 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


generation,  the  Saviour  now  lived  in  spirit  the  life  of 
man,  rejoiced  in  his  virtue,  assumed  the  guilt  of  his 
vices.  How  sadly  He  thought  of  Adam.  It  was  by 
pride  and  gluttony  that  the  first  Adam,  in  a  garden  of 
every  delight,  had  ruined  us  ;  it  is  by  humility  and  ab- 
stinence that  the  second  Adam  makes  ready  to  save  us. 
Adam  and  all  sinners  after  him  hearken  to  the  voice  of 
the  flesh,  to  the  stirrings  of  self-love  and  the  allure- 
ments of  Satan  ;  Jesus  is  deaf  to  every  voice  which  does 
not  harmonize  with  the  voice  of  God.  The  guidance 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  His  one  rule  of  conduct. 

When  God's  voice  sounds  in  a  saint's  most  interior 
soul,  it  casts  him  into  an  ecstasy — life  with  God  absorbs 

his  thoughts  so  totally  that 
he  loses  taste  and  touch  and 
sight  and  hearing  in  the  per- 
fect blending  of  his  spirit 
with  the  Deity.  And  even 
when  restored  to  conscious- 
ness, he  can  but  utter  broken 
cries  of  joy,  of  love,  of  long- 
ing, of  thanksgiving ;  and 
then  follows  a  quiet  of  soul 
beyond  words  to  describe. 
The  perfection  of  this  state 
was  what  Jesus  experienced 
in  the  desert.  For  forty 
days  He  enjoyed  intimate 
communion  with  the  Father 
and  the  Spirit. 

To  His  own  high  associa- 
tion with  the  Father  and  the 
Spirit  He  must  elevate  the 
souls  of  men,  a  union  natural 
ANCIENT  AQUEDUCT  NEAR  JERICHO.  to  Him  and  of  original  right, 


THE  PREPARA  TION  IN  THE  DESERT. 


135 


supernatural  to  them  and  wholly  the  boon  of  Kis  love. 
He  must  rule  men's  wills  by  His  divine  love  till  they 
obey  His  Father  with  the  instinct  of  the  Spirit.  He 
must  penetrate  the  minds  of  men  with  His  own 
thoughts,  transform  them  with  His  own  aspirations. 

But  to  this  glorious  vision  succeeds  the  dreadful 
view  of  the  cost.  The  terrible  prophets  of  old  come 
one  by  one  into  the  inner  court  of  His  spirit,  and  the 
words  of  God  which  they  speak  fall  upon  Him  like 
the  hammer  breaking  the  rock  in  pieces.  From  an 
ecstasy  of  joy  He  passes  to  a  stupor  of  woe.  He  sees 
all  the  difficulties  that  await  Him  :  indifference,  sus- 
picion, intrigues,  cowardice,  treason.  Incoming  up 
in  the  background  He  sees  the  gloomy  figure  of  His 
Cross.  For  forty  days  did  Jesus  alternate  thus  be- 
tween heaven  and  hell,  between  holy  ecstasy  and  holy 
fear.  The  number  forty  is  a  favorite  one  with  God. 
Forty  days  and  forty  nights  the  earth  was  washed  by 
the  deluge  ;  for  forty  years  the  Israelites  did  penance 
in  the  desert;  Moses  and  Elias  and  the  Ninevites 
fasted  forty  days.  And  now  the  King  of  prophets  and 
the  Head  of  the  chosen  people  again  sanctifies  the 
sacred  number. 

When  the  soul  is  in  perfect  mastery  it  suspends 
the  body's  functions,  the  spiritual  life  absorbs  the 
material  life,  and  hence  many  have  thought  that  our 
Saviour's  fast  was  total  abstinence  from  food  and 
drink.  But  some  have  supposed  that  Jesus  fasted  like 
John  the  Baptist,  and  although  without  bread  or  meat 
to  eat,  yet  did  not  refuse  the  wild  roots  and  herbs  and 
honey  of  the  wilderness.  At  any  rate,  at  the  end  of 
forty  days  the  utterly  exhausted  body  reclaimed  its 
rights.  Hunger,  lassitude,  extreme  weakness  com- 
pelled the  Messias  to  provide  Himself  some  food.  And 
at  this  moment  Satan  began  his  temptation.  He  knew 


VULTURES    IN  THE 
DESERT. 


136  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST, 

Jesus  to  have  been  but  recently  proclaimed  the  Son  of 
God :  he  will  test  the  meaning  of  this  mysterious 
title.* 

The  kingdom  of  Christ  thus  begins  in  the  storm  of 
battle.  The  enemy  must  be  met,  grappled  with, 
totally  overthrown  and  put  to  flight  by  Jesus  Christ. 
This  battle  shall  be  renewed  from  time  to  time,  always 
with  the  same  result — Christ  triumphant.  From  hence- 
forth the  evil  spirit  will  be  met  with  continually  in 
our  Saviour's  mission.  He  had  been  far  more  secret 
in  his  work  in  the  previous  ages,  but  terribly  active 
and  successful  ;  for  after  his  victory  in  Eden  his  em- 
pire had  gradually  become  almost  universal, — "  all  the 
gods  of  the  Gentiles  are  devils."  He  is  now  to  be 
completely  conquered. 

Let  us  ask  how  far  the  devil  could  actually  tempt 

*  Sceptics  would  have  us  regard  demons  or  devils  as  creatures  of  a 
credulous  fancy.  But  all  human  history  reveals  the  hierarchy  of  evil  beings 
extending  from  the  invisible  world  into  our  own.  Nothing  in  science  -is 
better  proved  than  that  there  are  spirits  in  communication  with  men, — good 
spirits  and  evil  spirits.  The  kingdom  of  wickedness  embraces  portions  of 
both  the  visible  and  invisible  world,  and  is  divided  only  by  an  imaginary 
line,  and  of  this  kingdom  Satan  and  his  spirits  are  the  rulers.  Apart  from 
the  plain  evidence  of  the  ancient  scriptures,  the  teaching  of  Christ  is  con- 
clusive evidence  from  revelation.  Satan  has  his  kingdom  (Matt.  xii.  25), 
his  emissaries  (Matt.  xxv.  41),  against  whom  Christ  sets  up  His  standard 
and  makes  relentless  and  successful  war.  Satan  is  the  promoter  of  all  evil, 
the  father  of  lies  and  of  liars,  the  instigator  of  murder  (John  viii.  44),  ever 
assaulting  the  Church  (Matt.  xvi.  19),  the  foaming  enemy  of  the  Apostles, 
among  whom  Peter  is  the  mainstay  (Luke  xxii.  31). 

As  to  the  power  of  the  demons,  reason  no  less  than  revelation  limits  it 
strictly  to  unwittingly  helping  God  to  carry  out  His  plans.  The  demons  are 
workers  of  evil  in  ways  which  help  the  working  of  good.  They  hurt  Job 
only  to  make  his  patience  heroic ;  they  ensnare  Peter  only  to  deepen  his 
loyalty.  Careful  introspection  reveals  in  each  soul  the  meddling  of  an  alien 
power  seeking  to  obtain  control.  The  Evil  One's  superiority  of  nature 
gives  him  a  certain  access  to  our  minds,  as  it  also  gives  him  control  of  the 
material  elements.  It  is  this  two-fold  phenomenon,  a  mysterious  mastery 
of  the  material  elements,  as  well  as  of  our  imagination,  making  for  evil, 
that  explains  why  mankind  has  always  believed  in  demons  ;  it  was  universal 
experience  that  established  the  universal  belief  in  diabolism. 


THE  PREPARA  TION  IN  THE  DESERT.  137 

our  Saviour.  Theologians  answer  that  whenever  Jesus 
willed  it,  His  Divinity  withdrew  into  the  higher  part 
of  His  soul  and  there  passed  within  the  veil.  There 
remained  to  Jesus  His  human  soul,  His  fulness  of 
faith  and  hope  and  love  as  a  man;  without  the  im- 
mediate communication  of  the  infinite  power  of  God. 
But  His  human  nature  is  ever  of  one  person  with  His 
divine  nature,  which  is  watchful  of  the  struggles  and 
makes  sure  of  the  triumph  of  the  human  nature.  The 
pendulum  swings  to  the  right  and  the  left,  but  is  never 
out  of  control  of  the  supereminent  force  of  gravity: 
the  movement  guides  the  clock  and  the  stability 
guarantees  its  regularity.  Thus  did  Jesus  merit  the 
glory  of  resisting  temptation,  even  though  the  presence 
of  the  Divine  Word  assured  His  triumph.  Seeming  to 
lose  the  form  of  God  and  to  have  only  that  of  His  hu- 
manity, yet  His  humanity  was  so' well  guarded  by 
the  divinity  that  it  was  absolutely  incapable  of  sin. 
The  difference  between  Him  and  us  in  temptation  is 
thus  very  great.  To  Him  temptation  was  an  influence 
wholly  external ;  it  found  not  the  least  help  in  His 
heart.  To  us,  it  becomes  at  once  interior,  having  a 
spy  in  our  native  weakness  to  aid  it  from  within. 
Even  when  we  remain  innocent,  temptation  stirs  the 
sediment,  it  finds  some  sinful  memories  to  help  it, 
some  fleeting  evil  tendencies,  and  the  waters  which 
seemed  but  now  clear  as  crystal  become'  dark  and 
troubled.  In  Jesus  there  was  no  evil  memory  or 
tendency,  no  sediment  of  evil  possibility,  no  scars  of 
former  disgraceful  wounds.  Yet  He  is  our  model: 
' '  For  we  have  not  a  high-priest  who  cannot  have 
compassion  on  our  infirmities  :  but  one  tempted  in  all 
things  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin"  (Hebrews  iv. 
15).  He  has  a  sympathetic  knowledge  of  what  it  is 
to  fall  into  temptation.  As  a  physician  studies  not 


138  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

only  in  books  but  at  the  dissecting  table  and  in  hospi- 
tals, so  did  Jesus  learn  what  sin  is,  and  so  He  was 
tempted  for  our  sakes. 

»  Satan  addresses  Jesus  as  Son  of  God,  for  he  had 
heard  the  voice  from  heaven  call  Him  so.  But  how 
did  the  demon  understand  that  title?  Did  it  mean 
only  that  Jesus  was  beloved  like  a  son  ?  Or  did  he 
suspect  that  He  was  the  Word  Incarnate,  God  as 
Jehovah  is  God  ?  Now,  many  have  thought  that 
Satan  had  been  cast  out  of  heaven  because  he  was 
too  proud  to  accept  and  believe  this  very  mystery 
of  God-Man  that  Jesus  is,  when  it  was  prophetically 
revealed  to  the  angels ;  nor  would  he  easily  believe 
it  now.  No  doubt,  therefore,  the  evil  one  was  mys- 
tified, and  he  will  put  this  strange  being  to  the 
test. 

Did  he  appear -to  Jesus  in  human  form;  or  did  he 
speak  to  Him  from  the  air  ;  or  address  Him  spirit 
to  spirit?  In  this  we  are  not  left  wholly  to  conjecture, 
as  the  sacred  narrative  seems  plainly  to  show  us  Satan 
in  human  or  some  other  tangible  or  visible  form. 
We  may  be  certain,  too,  that  it  was  by  an  actual 
and  bodily  movement  that  Jesus  was  carried  to  the 
Temple's  topmost  pinnacle,  and  afterwards  to  some 
high  mountain  whence  the  fiend  could  boast  of  his 
ownership  of  the  entire  pagan  world.  Yet,  after,  all, 
the  triple  battle  of  Jesus  was  fought  and  won  in  the 
invisible  but  most  real  arena  of  spirit  life. 


THE  TEMPTATION.  139 

CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    TEMPTATION. 
Matt.  iv.  i—n;  Mark  i.  12 ,  13  ;  Luke  iv.  1—13. 

NTIL,  now,  since  the  fall  of  Adam,  Satan — 
he  now  felt  it  plainly — had  never  known  so 
momentous  a  conflict.  That  great  victory 
seemed  to  have  given  him  his  present  plan 
of  battle.  Sensual  indulgence,  presump- 
tion on  the  divine  goodness,  lust  of  power  : 
these  were  the  sins  of  Adam.  Can  this 
new  Adam  be  allured  to  commit  the  same  ?  A  won- 
der-worker— thought  the  devil — this  Messias  surely 
must  be ;  I  will  help  Him  to  spoil  His  mission  by  a 
vain  show  of  miracles.  Not  by  miracles  of  suffering 
and  of  love  shall  He  rule  men,  but  by  those  of  pride 
and  lordly  majesty,  of  gluttony,  presumption,  ambi- 
tion ;  and  so  He  shall  rule  men  under  my  supremacy. 
Jesus  arms  Himself  with  His  Father's  sword  of 
resistance,  the  word  of  God.  His  enemy's  assaults 
are  thrown  back  instantly  in  his  face.  Not  a  moment's 
thought  is  given  to  them.  Adam  and  Eve  ruined 
everything  by  complacent  dallying  with  the  tempter  ; 
Jesus  saves  all  by  immediate  rejection.  As  a  plumb- 
line  in  a  mason's  hand  strikes  against  a  bulge  in 
a  defective  wall,  so  does  the  truth  of  God  disclose 
a  lie.  Jesus  has  but  one  rule  for  heart  and  hand  and 
tongue ;  it  is  God's  law,  whose  words  He  sternly 
utters,  yea,  even  with  irony,  against  the  demon. 

Fainting  with  hunger  after  forty  days  of  fasting, 
He  is  addressed  by  Satan  :  "  If  Thou  be  the  Son  of 
God,  command  that  these  stones  be  made  bread.  But 
He  answered  and  said  :  It  is  written,  not  by  bread 
alone  doth  man  live,  but  by  every  word  that  pro- 
ceedeth  from  the  mouth  of  God"  (Deut.  viii.  3).  Al- 


140 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


ways  Kis  enemies  will  look  for  a  sign,  wicked  and 
adulterous  as  they  are :  as  Satan  their  ringleader  at 
this  beginning  of  His  struggle,  so  his  chief  lieutenants 
under  the  cross,  who  will  shout:  "  If  Thou  be  the 
Son  of  God,  come  down  from  the  cross!"  Our 
Saviour  refuses  to  separate  Himself 
from  our  common  human  lot.  The 
first  word  of  His  answer  places  Je- 
sus as  a  man  among  men,  gladly 
content  with  God's  will  as  His  meat 
and  drink.  "Man  liveth  not  by 
bread  alone."  Vainly  did  Satan 
call  on  the  Son  of  God  to  use  the 
divine  power  in  the  interests  of 
sensual  indulgence.  Personal  inter- 
est is  not  the  aim  of  the  Messias, 
and,  at  all  events,  Jehovah  had  fed 
Israel  in  the  wilderness  with  bread 
from  heaven.  And  does  not  any 
heroic  soul  forget  to  eat  corporal 
food  when  fed  by  the  word  of  God  ? 
Abandonment  to  the  fatherly  care 
of  Divine  Providence,  total  aban- 
donment, is  the  characteristic  trait 
of  the  true  Son  of  God,  whether  it 
be  Jesus  the  Only-Begotten,  or  any 
one  of  His  brethren  by  adoption. 
Jesus  is  found  impregnable  on  the 
side  of  sensual  appetite,  and  of  con- 


THE  STRUGGLE   IN  THE  DESERT. 

And  Jesus  being  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
returned  from  the  Jordan,  and  immediately 
the  Spirit  drove  him  out  into  the  desert. 
And  he  was  in  the  desert  forty  days  and 
forty  nights,  and  was  tempted  by  Satan  ; 
and  he  was  with  beasts.  And  he  ate  nothing 
in  those  days  ;  and  when  they  were  ended, 
he  was  hungry.  And  the  tempter  coming 
said  to  him :  If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God, 
command  that  these  stones  be  made  bread. 
Who  answered  and  said  :  It  is  written, 
Not  in  bread  alone  doth  man  live,  but  in 
every  word  that  proceedeth  from  the  mouth 
of  God.  Then  the  devil  took  him  up  into  the 
holy  city,  and  set  him  upon  the  pinnacle  of 
the  temple,  and  said  to  him  :  If  thou  be  the 
Son  of  ,God,  cast  thyself  down,  for  it  is 
written  :  That  he  hath  given  his  angels 
charge  over  thee,  and  in  their  hands  shall 
they  bear  thee  up,  lest  perhaps  thou  dash 
thy  foot  against  a  stone.  Jesus  said  to  him  : 
It  is  written,  again  :  Thou  shalt  not  tempt 
the  Lord  thy  God.  Again  the  devil  took  him 
up  into  a  very  high  mountain  :  and  shewed 
him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  and  the 
glory  of  them,  in  a  moment  of  time,  and  he 
said  to  him:  To  thee  will  1  give  all  this 
power  and  the  glory  of  them  ;  for  to  me 
they  are  delivered,  and  to  whom  I  will  I 
give  them.  If  thou  therefore  wilt  adore 
before  me,  all  shall  be  thine.  Then  Jesus 
saith  to  him  :  Begone,  Satan  :  for  it  is  writ- 
ten :  The  Lord  thy  God  shalt  thou  adore, 
and  him  only  shalt  thou  serve.  And  all 
the  temptation  being  ended,  the  devil  de- 
parted from  him  for  a  time ;  and  behold 
angels  came  and  ministered  to  him. 


fidence  in  His  Father. 

Satan  attempts  another  side,  that  of  excessive  con- 
fidence in  God.  For  it  often  happens  that  one  who 
knows  that  he  is  tenderly  loved  is  vile  enough  to 
abuse  his  privilege  by  presumption.  And  as  the 
desert  was  a  fit  place  for  temptation  to  self-indulgence, 


THE  TEMPTATION. 


141 


so  the  Holy  City  shall  be  the  scene  of  a  more  spiritual 
trial.  Instantly  the  demon  wafts  Jesus  through  the 
air  and  sets  Him  on  a  pinnacle  of  the  Temple. 
Far  below  Him  He  sees  the  city  teeming  with  a 
multitude  of  people.  Satan  whispers  to  Him,  What 
a  glorious  thing  to  descend  upon  the  wings  of  sup- 
porting angels — the  entire  city  witnessing  the  miracle  ! 
This  would  prove  to  all  Israel  that  Thou  art  their  long 
expected  Messias.  And  as  Jesus  had  used  Scripture 
in  His  defence,  the  tempter  tried  it  him- 
self in  this  second  assault,  and  said  to 
Him  :  "If  Thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  cast 
Thyself  down,  for  it  is  written :  He  hath 
given  His  angels  charge  over  Thee,  and 
in  their  hands  shall  they  bear  Thee  up, 
lest  perhaps  Thou  dash  Thy  foot  against 
a  stone  "  (Psalm  xc.  u,  12).  It  is  notice- 
able that  he  suppresses  a  part  of  the  text, 
which  promises  the  angelic  aid  to  those 
who  abide  in  their  proper  place — "  to  keep 
thee  in  all  thy  ways" — faithful,  that  is, 
to  the  ordinary  will  of  God,  which  com- 
pliance with  this  amazing  proposal  cer- 
tainly would  not  be. 

The  temptation  was  that  the  Messias 
should  make  a  dazzling  exhibition  of 
miraculous  power,  and  so  by  one  splendid 
stroke  overthrow  all  unbelief,  suffering  no 
delay,  not  consenting  to  be  a  subject  of  tedious  dis- 
cussion. And  why  not  ?  Is  it  not  better  to  conquer 
all  opposition  by  the  miraculous  use  of  the  divine 
power  ?  But  Jesus  reasoned  otherwise.  The  miracle 
would  be  either  a  vainglorious  display  of  power,  or 
it  would  be  a  departure  from  the  Father's  will ;  in 
either  case  an  act  of  presumption.  To  back  it  up 


"And  he  showed  Him  all  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world,  and  th: 
glory  of  them  "  (Matt.  iv.  8). 


"  The  Lord  thy  God  shalt 
thou  adore,  and  Him  only  shalt 
thou  serve  "  (Matt.  iv.  10). 


142  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

by  a  Scripture  text  is  but  one  instance  of  how  the 
dangerous  and  novel  ventures  of  fanatics  in  religious 
affairs  may  seem  to  be  favored  by  detached  passages 
of  inspiration,  whereas  the  whole  teaching  of  God 
restores  us  to  the  safe  ways  of  patient  obedience c 
Therefore  Jesus  answered  :  "  It  is  written  again,  Thou 
shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God"  (Deut.  vi.  16). 
This  answer  but  increased  Satan's  mystification. 
Perhaps,  thought  the  tempter,  Jesus  is  not  so  power- 
ful a  being  after  all.  If  He  is  a  mere  man, 
why  not  assail  Him  on  a  common  side  of 
human  weakness — ambition  ?  ' '  The  devil 
taketh  Him  up  into  an  exceeding  high  moun- 
tain, and  sheweth  Him  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world  in  a  moment  of  time,  and  the  glory 
of  them ;  and  saith  unto  Him,  to  Thee  will 
I  give  all  this  power,  and  the  glory  of  them ; 
for  to  me  they  are  delivered,  and  to  whom 
I  will  I  give  them.  If  Thou  therefore  wilt 
fall  down  and  adore  me,  all  shall  be  Thine." 
This  claim  of  world- wide  empire  was  not  so 
transparent  a  fraud  as  at  first  sight  it  seems, 
when  we  remember  Satan's  almost  universal 
dominion  over  a  world  sunk  in  idolatry.  Men  and  na- 
tions everywhere  adored  the  demon  under  the  names 
of  their  gods  and  goddesses. 

Let  us  remember,  too,  that  half  a  century  before 
this  date  one  man  had  conquered  the  world  :  Julius 
Caesar.  Nor  is  devil-worship  essentially  different  from 
types  of  idolatry  common  in  our  Saviour's  time.  But 
Jesus  had  come  to  overthrow  Satan,  and  to  do  so  all 
the  more  thoroughly  because  the  demon  in  the  shape 
of  pagan  deities  was  burlesquing  the  true  and  only 
God,  and  masquerading  among  the  nations  as  the 
supreme  being. 


THE  TEMPTATION. 


Jesus  has  come,  not  to  continue  this  empire  of 
tying  and  pretence  or  even  to  do  good  by  utilizing 
its  vile  methods,  but  to  ruin  it  totally.  He  will  do 
so  by  adopting  methods  absolutely  the  reverse  of  the 
devil's  malign  activity  ;  nay,  even  the  reverse  of  ordi- 
nary human  means;  At  the  expense  of  His  own 
race's  allegiance,  Jesus  will  reject  all  human  force  in 
establishing  His  authority,  all  violence,  all  alliances 
with  earthly  powers.  By  patient  suffering,  by  kindly 
persuasion,  by  the  loveliness  of  truth,  He  shall  obtain 
a  spiritual  empire  worthy  of  His  Father.  It  shall 
be  a  little  seed  that  will  grow  into  the  great  tree  of 
a  new  order  of  life.  And  now,  therefore,  away  with 
thee,  Satan,  an  end  to  thy  foul  temptations!  "  Be- 
gone, Satan  :  for  it  is  written,  The  Lord  thy  God  shalt 
thou  adore,  and  Him  only  shalt  thou  serve"  (Deut. 
vi.  13). 

The  tempter  has  fled.  The  dark  shadows  vanish 
from  the  clear  mind  of  Jesus — false  joys, 
false  hopes,  false  glory  cannot  gain  a 
foothold  there.  Let  Satan  launch  against 
Him  at  a  future  day  all  the  powers  of 
earth  and  hell ;  Jesus  will  accept  the 
challenge  and  conquer  by  His  cross. 
"  Fear  not,"  He  will  say  to  His  trem- 
bling followers,  "I  have  conquered  the 
world." 

The  victory  of  Jesus  over  Satan  in 
the  desert  is  the  first  of  an  unbroken 
series,  and  it  is  our  victory.  Since  that 
victory  sensual  pleasure,  fleeting  glory, 
the  itch  for  money,  so  often  used  at 
Satan's  instigation,  have  never  had  the 
power  that  they  had  in  ancient  days,  when 
his  reign  was  over  a  race  of  slaves. 


"Then   the  devil  left  Him" 
(Matt.  iv.  «). 


144 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Jesus  has  emancipated  us.  Since  His  victory,  poverty, 
self-denial,  humility,  a  gentle  and  yielding  kindness, 
a  meek  and  wise  reliance  on  God's  fatherly  provi- 
dence, have  entered  the  field  of  human  endeavor 
and  have  won  the  best  victories.  From  that  time, 
also,  has  Jesus  given  His  angels  greater  power  over 
us.  These  heavenly  spirits,  who  came  and  congratu- 
lated our  Saviour  upon  His  triumph,  are  always  with 
us,  aiding  us  in  our  conflict,  rejoicing  in  heaven  at 
our  victory. 


AN  OASIS  IN  THE  DESERT. 


THE  BAPTIST  AND  THE  CHIEF  PRIESTS.  145 


CHAPTER    V. 

JOHN   THE    BAPTIST  AND   THE    CHIEF   PRIESTS.  — 
"  BEHOLD   THE   LAMB    OF   GOD  !  " 


John  i. 

MEANTIME,  and  while  Jesus  was  battling  with  the 
enemy  in  the  desert,  the  Jewish  priests  and  the 
leaders  of  the  Pharisees  were  taking  counsel  together 
in  Jerusalem  about  the  Baptist.  "  And  this  is  the. 
testimony  of  John,  when  the  Jews  sent  from  Jerusalem 
priests  and  L,evites  to  him." 

The  ever-watchful  eyes  of  these  religious  rulers 
did  not  fail  to  perceive  the  powerful  agitation  of 
the  people  under  John's  preaching;  nor  did  they  at 
first  view  it  unfavorably.  They  hoped  that  it  might 
be  the  beginning  of  a  great  national  agitation  in  Israel 
in  accordance  with  their  own  schemes.  Therefore, 
they  sent  priests  and  L,evites  to  the  Baptist,  con- 
veying a  message  carefully  guarded  in  its  terms  and 
so  framed  as  to  learn  all  and  admit  nothing  ;  the 
answer  would  enable  them  to  judge  whether  they 
would  push  the  people  forward  into  John's  arms  or 
hold  them  back.  "  Who  art  thou  ?  "  demanded  the 
embassy.  John  knew  well  that  he  was  rumored  to 
be  the  Messias.  Instantly  "he  confessed,  and  did 
not  deny;  and  he  confessed:  I  am  not  the  Christ." 
Vainglory  had  not  a  moment's  control  of  his  motives 
or  his  conduct.  But  they  insisted:  "What  then? 
Art  thou  EHas  ?  '  '  Now,  the  prophet  Malachias  had 
foretold  him  as  EHas  (iv.  5),  and  Jesus  afterwards 
said  of  him:  "This  is  EHas  that  was  to  come." 
But  John  knew  that  he  was  all  this  only  in  a 
spiritual  sense,  and  permitted  no  such  delusion  to 
enter  his  mind  as  that  he  was  actually  the  great  pro- 


146  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

phet  of  Israel  returned  in  person.  He  was  the  bearer 
of  the  thoughts,  the  power,  the  soul's  earnestness  of 
Elias.  Lest  the  messengers  should  misunderstand  him, 
he  ignored  his  claim  to  even  this  singular  dignity. 
"  And  they  asked  him,  What  then  ?  Art  thou  EHas  ? 
And  he  saith,  I  am  not.  Art  thou  the  prophet?  And 
he  answered:  No."  The  eager  souls  of  the  people 
dreamed  of  the  appearance  of  Enoch,  or  of  Josue, 
and  especially  of  Jeremias,  their  favorite  prophet  in  this 
•era  of  their  degradation.  No  :  these  imaginings  of  the 
people  had  no  fulfilment  in  him. 

But  they  must  have  something  more  than  mere 
negations  to  bring  back  to  the  Sanhedrin.  "They 
said  therefore  unto  him:  Who  art  thou,  that  we  may 
give  an  answer  to  them  that  sent  us?  What  sayest 
thou  of  thyself?  And  he  said  :  I  am  the  voice  of 
one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  Make  straight  the  way 
of  the  Lord,  as  said  the  prophet  Isaias."  What  an 
example  of  humility !  In  total  self-forgetfulness  this 
mighty  angel  of  humanity  falls  back  for  a  title  upon 
his  office  of  messenger  of  God  ;  nay,  upon  the  very 
physical  instrument  of  it,  the  voice,  the  word,  the 
cry :  but  it  was  a  voice  foretold  of  yore,  and  it 
was  a  cry  which  in  turn  announced  the  Saviour  of 
men.  Then  came  the  scrutinizing  question  of  the 
rigorists.  "And  they  '  that  were  sent  were  of  the 
Pharisees.  And  they  asked  him  and  said  unto  him, 
Why  baptizest  thou  then,  if  thou  be  not  the  Christ, 
nor  EHas,  nor  the  prophet?"  The  answer  fully  re- 
vealed both  the  humility  of  the  Precursor  and  his 
relation  to  the  Christ,  as  well  as  his  supernatural 
knowledge  of  His  immediate  coming.  "  I  baptize 
with  water  :  but  there  hath  stood  One  in  the  midst 
of  you  whom  you  know  not.  The  same  is  He  that 
shall  come  after  me,  who  is  preferred  before  me: 


THE  BAPTIST  AND  THE  CHIEF  PRIESTS.  147 

the  latchet  of  whose  shoe  I  am  not  worthy  to  loose. 
These  things  were  done  in  Bethania  beyond  the 
Jordan,  where  John  was  baptizing." 

The  startling  announcement  that  the  Messias  was 
at  hand  placed  the  Sanhedrin  in  an  attitude  of  ex- 
pectation. Let  Him  who  shall  claim  this  dignity  be 
manifested,  they  must  have  thought,  and  then  we 
shall  know  what  course  to  pursue  both  towards  Him 
and  His  precursor.  Hence  when  in  after  times  Jesus 
was  rejected  by  the  religious  rulers,  so  was  John 
rejected,  and  denounced  to  Herod,  if  not,  as  is  sus- 
pected, even  delivered  up  by  them.  Meantime  they 
did  not  interfere  with  John;  all  that  he  said  and  did 
was  favorable  to  their  ultimate  object  of  a  popular 
uprising,  the  overthrow  of  the  stranger's  domination 
and  the  independence  of  Israel  as.  a  theocratic  and 
racial  state.  John  had  meantime  kept  enshrined  the 
remembrance  of  that  beautiful  form,  dripping  with 
the  crystal  waters  of  the  Jordan,  illumined  with 
heavenly  holiness,  and  authenticated  by  the  radiant 
dove  and  the  thrilling  voice  from  on  high.  But  he 
knew  that  the  great  prerogative  of  his  office  was  yet 
to  be  exercised.  That  was  the  formal  and  public 
proclamation  of  the  Messias  with  all  due  solemnity. 
Therefore  he  looked  for  the  return  of  Jesus  from  the 
desert,  to  which  he  knew  He  had  retired  for  His 
preparation.  Jesus  on  His  part  knew  that  it  was 
by  the  Precursor,  the  gate-keeper  of  Israel,  He  should 
be  properly  introduced  to  His  mission. 

To  John  was  also  granted  the  knowledge  that 
the  mission  of  the  Messias  was  to  be  peaceful.  This 
pacific  character  of  the  Saviour  was  contrary  to  popu- 
lar expectation.  Israel  was  to  be  saved  not  by  a 
warrior-king  but  by  a  patient  sufferer.  It  was.  not 
a  universal  conqueror,  but  a  universal  victim  of  atone- 


1 48 


LIFE  OF  JESVS  CHRIST. 


ment  for  all  human  sinfulness,  that  John  was  appointed 
to  announce.  The  last  of  the  Hebrews,  John  was 
set  free  from  Hebrew  ambition  and  narrowness.  He 
welcomed  Jesus  as  the  Saviour  of  the  whole  world  : 
"John  saw  Jesus  coming  to  him,  and  he  said  :  Behold 
the  Lamb  of  God  !  Behold  Him  who  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world  !  "  Now,  although  the  people 
looked  for  no  lamb-like  man  of  God,  but  for  a  mighty 
monarch  of  God,  yet  they  were  by  no  means  borne 
out  in  this  by  their  Scriptures.  Isaias  (liii.  7)  pro- 
phesies of  the  Messias  that  He 
should  be  led  like  a  lamb,  mute 
and  helpless,  to  the  slaughter. 

Jesus  is  the  realization  of  this 
symbolical  utterance  of  Isaias,  His 
resignation  absolute,  His  gentleness 
perfect ;  He  is  the  Lamb  of  God, 
the  personal  fulfilment  of  the  high- 
est types  of  sacrifice  in  the  old  dis- 
pensation. He  is  the  sacrificial 
lamb,  He  is  prefigured  in  the  lamb 
sacrificed  at  the  end  of  the  Egyp- 
tian servitude  —  the  lamb  whose 


"BEHOLD   THE   LAMB   OF   GOD  !  " 

The  next  day  John  saw  Jesus  coming  to 
him,  and  he  saith  :  Behold  the  lamb  of 
God,  behold  him  who  laketh  away  the  sin 
of  the  world.  This  is  he  of  whom  I  said  : 
After  me  there  cometh  a  man,  who  is  pre- 
ferred before  me  :  because  he  was  before 
me.  And  I  knew  him  not,  but  that  he  may 
be  made  manifest  in  Israel,  therefore  am  I 
come  baptizing  with  water.  And  John  gave 
testimony,  saying  :  I  saw  the  Spirit  coming 
down  as  a  dove  from  heaven,  and  he  re- 
mained upon  him.  And  I  knew  him  not : 
but  he,  who  sent  me  to  baptize  with  water, 
said  to  me :  He  upon  whom  thou  shalt  see 
the  Spirit  descending  and  remaining  upon 
him,  he  it  is  that  baptizeth  with  the  Holy 
Ghost.  And  I  saw  ;  and  I  gave  testimony, 
that  this  is  the  Son  of  God. 


blood  upon  the  door-posts  of  every  Hebrew  dwelling 
had  secured  the  safe  Passover  of  the  destroying  angel. 
This  had  been  the  divinely  chosen  sign  of  God's  friend- 
ship, a  symbol  of  reconciliation  so  universal  in  Israel 
that  in  every  household,  at  the  festival  of  the  Passover, 
a  lamb  was  sacrificed  and  eaten  by  the  family  for  the 
cleansing  of  sins  and  the  renewal  of  heavenly  protec- 
tion. This,  then,  the  holiest  as  well  as  the  earliest  of 
the  prophetic  sacrifices  of  the  Mosaic  religion,  the  Pre- 
cursor salutes  as  fulfilled  in  Jesus.  He  is  the  sin-of- 
fering which  it  foreshadowed.  The  followers  of  Jesus 
have  ever  continued  this  use  of  the  symbol,  applying 


THE  BAPTIST  AND  THE  CHIEF  PRIESTS.  149 

it  to  the  redemption  of  the  whole  world.  "  Purge  out, 
therefore,"  says  St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthians,  "the  old 
leaven,  that  ye  may  be  a  new  lump.  For  Christ  our 
Passover  is  sacrificed  for  us"  (I.  Cor.  v.  7). 

But  this  is  not  all.  Primarily  Jesus  is  the  Incarnate 
Word  of  God.  He  is  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God, 
and  John  strongly  insists  on  that:  "This  is  He  of 
whom  Isaias  said  :  After  me  there  cometh  a  man  who 
is  preferred  before  me,  because  He  was  before  me." 
John  points  out  Jesus  to  his  vast  auditory,  not  simply 
as  a  great  personage :  Jesus  had  actually  preceded 
John,  as  He  had  the  most  venerable  of  the  Hebrew 
patriarchs.  "  Before  Abraham  was  made  I  am,"  Jesus 
shall  afterwards  say.  The  Baptist  had  in  mind  the 
words  of  the  prophet  Malachias  (iii.  i)  :  "Behold  I 
send  My  Messenger,  a.nd  He  shall  prepare  the  way 
before  My  face."  Now,  He  who  makes  His  own 
creature  a  messenger  to  announce  Him,  exists  before- 
hand. Sin  or  no  sin,  man  is  united  to  God,  his 
nature  elevated  to  company  with  the  Deity  in  an 
eternal  and  personal  and  substantial  union  in  the  per- 
son of  Jesus. 

It  is  thus  that  John  fulfils  his  office  of  herald  of 
the  Expected  of  Nations  by  pointing  to  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth. He  does  not  rely  upon  family  tradition,  tables 
of  descent,  or  any  other  human  proofs,  but  upon  divine 
revelation,  immediate  and  undeniable.  By  my  own 
investigations  or  any  human  means,  he  says,  I  knew 
Him  not;  but  "I  saw  the  Spirit  coming  down  from 
heaven  as  a  dove,  and  He  remained  upon  Him.  And 
I  knew  Him  not :  but  He  that  sent  me  to  baptize  with 
water  said  to  me  :  He  upon  whom  thou  shalt  see  the 
Spirit  descending  and  remaining  on  Him,  He  it  is 
that  baptizeth  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  I  saw,  and 
I  gave  testimony  that  this  is  the  Son  of  God."  God 


150  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

had  revealed  the  sign  to  John,  and  John  had  seen 
it  fulfilled  with  his  own  eyes,  and  then  he  proclaimed 
it  to  Israel. 

Thus  had  God  brought  together  again  the  Messias 
and  His  Precursor,  whose  first  meeting  had  taken 
place  at  the  visit  of  Mary  to  Elizabeth.  Separation, 
total  and  distant,  had  intervened,  John  living  in  the 
desert  from  childhood  and  Jesus  at  Nazareth,  until, 
as  far  as  we  know  for  the  first  time,  the  sovereign 
will  of  God  brought  them  together  for  the  opening 
of  the  mission  of  the  Messias. 

John  also  teaches  that  Jesus  has  the  office,  es- 
sentially divine,  of  baptizing  souls  with  the  Holy 
Ghost — pouring  out  the  divine  Spirit  upon  all  flesh 
(Joel  ii.  28).  In  this  sense,  again,  we  know  the  mean- 
ing of  John  when  he  calls  Jesus  Son  of  God,  not 
as  holy  men  had  been  so  named  of  yore,  or  as 
angels  had  been,  but  by  an  exclusive  filiation,  by  the 
most  living  relationship,  Jesus  having  the  nature  it- 
self of  Jehovah,  of  which  the  Baptist  had  proclaimed 
the  primeval  action  in  Him.  Thus  John  the  Baptist 
has  fulfilled  his  mission  most  faithfully,  unflinchingly 
faced  the  incredulity  of  the  leaders  and  instructed 
the  ignorance  of  the  people.  What  will  they  do  ? 
He  has  baptized  them  unto  penance  ;  will  they  accept 
the  Baptism  of  the  Spirit  unto  eternal  life  about  to 
be  offered  by  Jesus? 


JESUS  CHOOSES  DISCIPLES.  1 5 1 

CHAPTER    VI. 
JESUS    CHOOSES    DISCIPLES. 

John  i.  35-51- 

.RGANIZATION  of  a  Church  was  al- 
ways our  Saviour's  purpose,  no  less 
than  teaching  and  redeeming  the 
world.  Both  doctrine  and  atonement 
were  to  be  dispensed  by  Him  through 
a  society,  a  public  institution  with 
its  duly  appointed  officers.  Naturally,  therefore,  and 
before  His  first  public  instruction,  our  Saviour  begins 
to  gather  His  Church's  officers.  Before  He  gathers 
His  followers  He  chooses  their  leaders.  He  begins 
to  organize  His  Church  before  He  begins  to  give  forth 
His  doctrine.  Naturally  also,  it  was  from  John's 
tried  and  trusted  disciples  that  He  would  begin  to 
select  His  own. 

It  was  for  this  reason  that  He  tarried  near  by  the 
Baptist's  ever-changing  assemblage  of  penitents.  In 
a  few  days  He  again  appeared  among  John's  hearers. 
"  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  !  "  exclaimed  the  Baptist, 
pointing  and  gazing  at  Him.  Two  disciples  of  John 
were  by  these  words  impelled  towards  Jesus,  for  it 
seemed  to  them  that  John  had  bidden  them  go.  But 
they  dared  not  address  the  Messias,  and  Jesus,  seeing 
their  shyness,  kindly  said  to  them  :  * '  What  seek  you  ? 
They  said  unto  Him  :  Rabbi,  where  dwellest  Thou?  " 
One  was  named  Andrew,  the  other  was  John,  son  of 
Zebedee,  who,  hiding  his  name  with  characteristic 
modesty,  relates  this  occurrence,  so  momentous  for 
his  future  destiny.  Rabbi  meant  teacher;  these  two 
saluted  Jesus,  therefore,  as  their  Master  in  holy 
wisdom,  and  gave  Him  their  never-faltering  allegi- 


152 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


ance  as  the  organizer  of  a  new  discipleship,  higher 
than  that  of  John  the  Baptist ;  this  they  did  solely 
upon  the  guarantee  of  their  former  master.  "Come 
and  see  "  where  I  live,  answered 
Jesus.  They  thus  became  His  dis- 
ciples, though  later  on  we  shall  find 
Him  renewing  their  vocation,  for  as 
yet  He  does  not  attach  them  so 
closely  to  Himself  as  to  make  them 
part  of  His  very  household.  But 
He  takes  them  to  His  home — if 
some  friendly  shelter  in  a  shep- 
herd's tent,  or  perhaps  some  hum- 
ble wayside  inn,  could  be  so  named. 
Afterwards  —  who  can  imagine 
after  what  joyful  converse  with 
Jesus  ?  —  Andrew  departed  from 
them,  seeking  and  finding  his  bro- 
ther Simon,  doubtless  also  num- 
bered among  John's  disciples.  ' '  We 
have  found  the  Messias  !  "  he  ex- 
claimed. Not  only  the  Baptist's 
testimony  but  the  disciple's  own 
personal  trial  of  it  was  now  in  evi- 
dence :  Eureka !  Andrew  uttered 
the  word  with  a  nobler  ecstasy  than 
Archimedes  or  Columbus.  As  Si- 
mon, Andrew's  brother,  came  up  to 
Jesus,  the  Master  beheld  the  one 
whom  -His  Father  in  heaven  had 
chosen  as  the  head  of  His  religion, 
and  He  saluted  him  accordingly. 
He  gave  him  a  new  name  :  "  Thou 
art  Simon,  the  son  of  Jona ;  thou 
shalt  be  called  Cephas,  which  is 


11  FOLLOW   ME  I  " 

The  next  day  again  John  stood,  and 
two  of  his  disciples.  And  beholding 
Jesus  walking,  he  saith  :  Behold  the  lamb 
of  God.  And  the  two  disciples  heard  him 
speak,  and  they  followed  Jesus.  And 
Jesus  turning,  and  seeing  them  following 
him,  said  to  them:  What  seek  you  ?  Who 
Laid  to  them :  Rabbi  (which  is  to  say, 
being  interpreted,  Master),  where  dwell- 
est  thou  ?  He  saith  to  them  :  Come  and 
see  They  came,  and  saw  where  he  abode, 
and  they  stayed  with  him  that  day  :  now  it 
was  about  the  tenth  hour.  And  Andrew 
the  brother  of  Simon  Peter  was  one  of 
the  two  who  had  heard  of  John,  and  fol- 
lowed him.  He  findeth  first  his  brother 
Simon,  and  saith  to  him  :  We  have  found 
the  MESSIAS,  which  is,  being  interpreted, 
the  CHRIST.  And  he  brought  him  to 
Jesus.  And  Jesus  looking  upon  him, 
said  :  Thou  art  Simon  the  son  of  Jona  ; 
thou  shalt  be  called  Cephas,  which  is  in- 
terpreted Peter.  On  the  following  day  he 
would  go  forth  into  Galilee,  and  he  findeth 
Philip.  And  Jesus  saith  to  him  :  Follow 
me.  Now  Philip  was  of  Bethsaida,  the 
city  of  Andrew  and  Peter.  Philip  findeth 
Nathanael,  and  saith  to  him:  We  have 
found  him  of  whom  Moses  in  the  law, 
and  the  prophets  did  write,  Jesus  the  son 
of  Joseph  of  Nazareth.  And  Nathanael 
said  to  him  :  Can  any  thing  of  good  come 
from  Nazareth  ?  Philip  saith  to  him : 
Come  and  see.  Jesus  saw  Nathanael 
coming  to  him,  and  he  saith  of  him  :.  Be- 
hold an  Israelite  indeed,  in  \vhom  there 
is  no  guile.  Nathanael  saith  to  him  : 
Whence  knowest  thou  me  ?  Jesus  answer- 
ed and  said  to  him  :  Before  that  Philip 
called  thee,  when  thou  wast  under  the  fig- 
tree,  I  saw  thee.  Nathanael  answered 
him,  and  said  :  Rabbi,  thou  art  the  Son  of 
God,  thou  art  the  king  of  Israel.  Jesus 
answered,  and  said  to  him:  Because  I 
said  unto  thee,  I  saw  thee  under  the  fig- 
tree,  thou  believest  :  greater  things  than 
these  shalt  thou  see  And  he  saith  to 
him  :  Amen,  amen  I  say  to  you,  you  shall 
see  the  heaven  opened,  and  the  angels  of 
God  ascending  and  descending  upon  the 
son  of  man. 


JESUS  CHOOSES  DISCIPLES. 


'53 


by  interpretation  Peter,  a  rock."  They  did  not  as  yet 
know  the  prophetic  meaning  of  this  divine  word,  nor 
how  at  a  future  day  Jesus  would  set  Peter  as  the 
foundation  stone  of  His  Church.  By  this  change  of 
name  Jesus  takes  possession  of  this  disciple  in  a  special 
ownership.  So  it  was  in  the  olden  time  when  God 
chose  Abraham  and  Israel. 

The  little  party  was  soon  on  the  journey  homeward 
— to  Galilee,  that  is  ;  to  which  prov- 
ince they  all  belonged.  There  Jesus 
purposed  completing  His  preparations 
for  promulgating  the  Glad  Tidings. 
But  soon,  and  while  journeying  on- 
wards, He  secured  another  disciple. 
"He  findeth  Philip,"  a  fisherman  of 
Lake  Genesareth,  a  pilgrim,  we  may 
be  sure,  homeward  bound  from  the 
Baptist's  preaching.  "Follow  Me," 
said  Jesus,  taking  him  into  His  com- 
pany to  share  the  instruction  imparted 
while  they  plodded  on.  Follow  Me ! 
There  is  majesty  in  this  little  phrase. 
What  a  change  from  the  retiring  man- 
ner of  a  village  mechanic. 

Philip  was  too  unselfish  to  enjoy  his 
favor  unknown  to  a  certain  dear  friend 
of  his,  Nathanael.  This  was  a  guile- 
less soul,  worthy,  if  any  man  could  be, 
of  the  honor  of  the  discipleship.  "  We  have  found 
Him  of  whom  Moses  spoke  in  the  law,"  says  Philip 
to  him,  "and  of  whom  the  prophets  spoke,  Jesus 
the  son  of  Joseph  of  Nazareth."  Philip  may  have 
thought  that  Nathanael,  being  a  Galilean,  would  favor 
Jesus  as  a  fellow-countryman.  But  to  Nathanael  the 
name  of  Nazareth  was  a  stumbling-block,  "Can  any 


154  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

good  thing  corne  out  of  Nazareth  ?  ' '  He  thus  quoted 
to  him  the  traditional  evil  report  of  that  town.  The 
Saviour,  Nathanael  meant  to  say,  must  be  from  Beth- 
lehem, nor  could  he  tolerate  the  thought  that  an  ob- 
scure man  of  Galilee  should  be  the  Messias.  "  Come 
and  see,"  answers  Philip,  appealing  simply  from  words 
to  actual  •  inspection ;  and  an  upright  soul  will  accept 
the  test. 

The  two  Galileans  had  been  resting  under  a  fig- 
tree.  There  had  Nathanael,  without  knowing  whence 
it  came,  felt  the  inward  touch  of  Jesus  preparing  the 
way  for  His  message  by  Philip — one  of  those  sweet 
and  holy  moments  which  divine  grace  consecrates  to 
its  high  purposes.  They  hurried  on  to  overtake  the 
Messias.  "Jesus  saw  Nathanael  coming  to  Him,  and 
He  saith  to  him:  Behold  an  Israelite  indeed,  in  whom 
there  is  no  guile."  But  Nathanael  seemed  as  little 
moved  by  this  praise  as  by  the  zeal  of  Philip.  Hence 
he  answered  coldly:  "Whence  knowest  Thou  me? 
Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him :  Before  .Philip 
called  thee,  when  thou  wast  under  the  fig-tree,  I  saw 
thee."  To -the  rude  honesty  of  the  fisherman  Jesus 
opposed  a  knowledge  of  some  hidden  thought  of 
Nathanael  while  under  the  fig-tree.  He  was  amazed. 
He  that  can  see  into  the  depths  of  my  soul,  thought 
the  honest  fisherman-,  and  read ,. its  secrets  ;  is  my 
master;  what  He  claims  I  grant.  "Rabbi,"  cried 
Nathanael,  "Thou  art  the  Son  of  God,  Thou  art 
the  King  of  Israel."  Jesus  praises  Nathanael  for  his 
faith,  nor  does  He  reprove  him  because  he  was  slow 
and  cautious  in  coming  to  it.  A  divine  light  has  en- 
tered that  soul,  it  need  only  watch  and  guard  it  to 
be  yet  further  illumined,  even  with  heavenly  visions. 
Jesus  answered:  "Because  I  said  unto  thee,  I  saw 
thee  under  the  fig-tree,  believest  thou  ?  Greater  things 


JESUS  CHOOSES  DISCIPLES.  155 

than  these  shalt  thou  see."  And  here  for  the  first 
time  He  uses  the  word  Amen,  a  term  of  powerful  em- 
phasis, meaning  most  certainly — it  is  absolutely  certain. 
He  finishes  by  addressing  all  the  newly  chosen  dis- 
ciples. "  Amen,  Amen  I  say  to  you,  you  shall  see 
heaven  opened,  and  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and 
descending  upon  the  Son  of  Man." 

The  title  "  Son  of  Man,"  thus  used  by  our  Sav- 
iour, and  in  connection  with  the  ministry  of  God's 
angels,  shows  how  the  Incarnation  has  made  the 
earth  a  favored  rendezvous  of  heaven's  blessed  spirits. 
Wherever  Jesus  is,  there  are  the  angels ;  some  are 
round  about  Him,  others  mounting  on  high  to  the 
Father's  throne,  and  others,  again,  descending  to  com- 
mune with  Jesus  and  to  wait  upon  Him ;  they  show 
the  perfect  union  between  earth  and 
heaven  by  the  mediation  of  the  Lord 
of  the  angels,  the  Man  Christ. 

Son  of  Man  He  is,  as  well  as 
Son  of  God.  He  is  the  head  of  our 
race,  the  Adam  of  a  new  humanity ; 
yet  how  humble  a  term  it  is  for  the 
Uncreated  Word  to  assume.  With 
it,  as  with  a  lowly  though  beautiful 
disguise,  He  clothes  His  Divinity, 
and  brings  us  all.  into  that  brother- .V. 
hood  which  unites  the  Saviour  to 
us,  a  brother  indeed  and  co-heir  in 
all  communion  of  God's  goods, 
spiritual  and  temporal. 


JESUS  BY  THE  SEA  OF  GALILEE. 


156  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THK   WEDDING   AT   CANA. 
John  ii.  i- ii. 

'HE  little  caravan  journeyed  onward  into 
Galilee  ;  it  was  our  Saviour's  purpose  to 
complete  the  number  of  His  Apostles  be- 
fore beginning  His  first  public  discourses ; 
but  here  a  woman  interrupts  and  alters 
the  regular  order  of  the  Master's  plans — 
His  Mother.  Arriving  at  Nazareth,  they 
learned  that  at  Cana,  a  little  city  to  the  eastward 
(now  called  Kefr-Kenna),  a  wedding-feast  was  to  take 
place,  and  that  Mary  had  already  gone  there,  and 
Jesus  found  an  invitation  awaiting  Him,  which  He 
decided  to  accept.  This  was  natural.  Nathanael  was 
of  Cana,  his  companions  must  go  that  way  to  reach 
their  homes  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Genesareth,  and  so 
all  started  along  with  Jesus,  who  would  arrange  for 
their  Invitation  to  the  wedding-feast.  This  could 
easily  be  done,  for  the  persons  married  were  cer- 
tainly intimate  friends,  and  perhaps  relatives,  of  our 
Saviour.  Mary  had  gone  beforehand  ;  her  nephews, 
sons  of  Cleophas,  were  also  there ;  perhaps  it  was  one 
of  them  who  was  to  be  married,  and  indeed  this 
seems  likely.  The  interest  Mary  took  in  the  festivities, 
and  the  assurance  with  which  she  gave  orders,  in- 
dicate that  she  felt  quite  at  home  there. 

It  is  q'uite  certain  that  our  Saviour  was  actuated 
only  by  a  kindly  spirit  of  complaisance  in  going  to 
the  Cana  wedding-feast,  though  the  intervention  of 
Mary  caused  Him  to  "manifest  His  glory"  there. 
We  cannot  imagine  John  the  Baptist  sitting  down  to 
a  wedding-feast,  and  perhaps  the  newly  chosen  dis- 


THE  WEDDING  A  T  CAN  A. 


157 


ciples,  all  novices  of  the  Baptist,  were  somewhat 
scandalized  by  His  familiar  condescension  to  human 
joys.  But  Jesus  would  save  sinners  in  every  way,  by 
mingling  with  men's  joys  and  sanctifying  them  no 
less  than  by  shaking  their  bones  with  the  terrors  of 
His  Father's  wrath.  It  was,  nevertheless,  a  somewhat 
startling  beginning  of  a  penitential  life,  such  as  must 
be  the  Christian's,  for  its  Master  to  sit  down  at  a  wed- 
ding-feast and  miraculously  contribute  to  the  good 
cheer  of  the  guests.  But  penance  is  not,  after  all, 
entirely  inconsistent  with  well-ordered  enjoyment. 

The  third  day  after  leaving  the  Jordan — and  it  must 
have  been  at  the  evening  hour — our  Saviour  and  His 
party  arrived  at  Cana,  having  but  one  league  to  travel 
after  leaving  Nazareth.  The  town  was  probably  like 
what  it  is  now,  seated 
on  a  hill-side,  the  houses 
surrounded  with  green 
and  blooming  hedges, 
and  about  the  public 
well  a  grove  of  olive- 
trees,  pomegranates,  and 
fig-trees.  In  the  East 
a  wedding-feast  is  often 
a  matter  of  several  days' 
family  rejoicing,  and  it 
may  have  been  that  our 
Saviour  and  His  disci- 
ples came  in  towards 
the  close  of  the  festivi- 
ties at  Cana — most  wel- 
come guests,  a  friend 
of  the  family  suddenly 
become  a  Rabbi,  ac- 
companied by  His  OWn  CANA  IN  GALILEE— VIEW  FROM  THE  WEST. 


AT   THE  WEDDING-FEAST. 


158  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

disciples.  They  in  turn  had  great  news  to 
tell  of  John's  preaching,  especially  of  his 
testimony  to  Jesus  as  the  promised  Saviour. 
But  while  the  company  was  absorbed  in 
these  amazing  themes  the  wine  began  to  fail; 
six  new  guests  helped  to  consume  it.  Now, 
who  would  first  notice  this  ?  The  men 
would  never  think  of  it ;  among  the  women 
Mar^r,  overjoyed  though  she  was  with  the 
news  of  John's  witness  to  our  Saviour  which 
engaged  them  all,  was  still  the  least  sur- 
prised at  it  or  absorbed  by  it.  She  was 
freer  than  any  other  to  observe  the  embarrassment  of 
the  hosts. 

Mary  therefore  went  to  Jesus,  drew  Him  aside  and 
secretly  whispered  :  ' '  They  have  no 
wine."  It  was  but  the  bare  men- 
tion of  the  awkward  predicament 
of  the  hOvSts,  yet  it  disguised  a  most 
earnest  prayer:  Mary -demanded  a 
miracle.  Nothing  more  clearly  in- 
dicates both  her  full  knowledge  of 
Jesus'  divine  power,  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  her  own  influence  over 
Him..  But  Jesus  felt  that,- if  He 
could  not  refuse,  her,  He-;  ought 
nevertheless  to  protest  against  this 
premature  display  of  miraculous 
powers.  He  answered  coldly  : 
'  Woman,  what  is  it  to  Me  and  to 
thee?  My  hour  is  not  yet  come." 
We  cannot  deny  that  the  tone  of 
this  answer  and  its  wording  may 
have  pained  Mary.  The  term 
"  Woman,"  however,  indicated  in 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  MIRACLES. 

And  the  third  day  there  was  a  marriage 
in  Cana  of  Galilee  :  and  the  mother  of 
Jesus  was  there.  And  Jesus  also  was 
invited,  and  his  disciples,  to  the  marriage. 
And  the  wine  failing,  the  mother  of  Jesus 
saith  to  him :  They  have  no  wine.  And 
Jesus  saith  to  her  :  Woman,  what  is  it  to 
me  and  ^o  thee  ?  my  hour  is  not  yet 
come.  His  mother  saith  to  the  waiters  : 
Whatsoever  he  shall  say  to  you,  do  ye. 
Now  there  were  set  there  six  water-pots 
of  stone,  according  to  the  manner  of  the 
purifying  of  the  Jews,  containing  two  or 
three  measures  apiece.  Jesus  saith  to 
them :  Fill  the  water-pots  with  water. 
And  they  filled  them  up  to  the  brim. 
And  Jesus  saith  to  them  :  Draw  out  now, 
and  carry  to  the  chief  steward  of  the 
feast.  And  they  carried  it.  And  when 
the  chief  steward  had  tasted  the  water 
made  wine,  and  knew  not  whence  it  was, 
but  the  waiters  knew  who  had  drawn 
the  water  ;  the  chief  steward  calleth  the 
bridegroom,  and  saith  to  him  :  Every  man 
at  first  setteth  forth  good  wine,  and  when 
men  have  well  drank,  then  that  which  is 
worse.  But  thou  hast  kept  the  good  wine 
until  now.  This  beginning  of  miracles 
did  Jesus  in  Cana  of  Galilee  :  and  mani- 
fested his  glory,  and  his  disciples  believed 
in  him. 


THE  WEDDING  AT  CANA. 


159 


itself  no  chiding,  for   in  the  language  used  it  meant 
I,ady  or  Madam. 

Mary's  confidence  was  not  at  all  shaken.  We 
read  only  the  words  of  Jesus  in  dead  print.  She  saw 
her  Son's  face,  she  heard  His  gentle  voice,  she  read 
His  heart.  Without  answering  a  syllable  she  quickly  | 
went  to  the  servants,  and  said:  "Whatsoever  He 
shall  say  to  you,"  motioning  towards  her  Son,  "that 
do  ye."  Now,  right  at  hand  were  six  large  wrater- 
pots  for  use  in  the  Jewish  purifications.  Jesus  had  WATER-POT  OF  STON 
followed  Mary  when  she  went  to  the  waiters,  and 
He  said  to  them :  ' '  Fill  the  water-pots  with  water ; 
and  they  filled  them  to  the  brim," — so  ready  were 
they  to  do  His  bidding.  He  meant  to  show  a  royal 
generosity  ;  He  and  His  followers  were  six  in  number, 
and  six  large  vessels  of  wine  would  be  a  worthy 
recompense  for  their  host's  hospitality.  Nor  can 
we  fancy  any  danger  of  excess  in  drinking,  for 
the  presence  of  Jesus  and  the  miraculous  charac- 
ter of  His  gift  would  guard  safely  against  it. 
The  miracle  was  instantly  manifest : 
the  water  had  turned  into  wine.  It 
was  indeed  a  wonderful  thing  to  the 
assembled  company,  but  what  was 
it  to  Jesus  but  a  quicker  way  of 
making  wine  out  of  water  than  His 
usual  way  of  the  vineyard,  slowly 
distilling  the  moisture  of  the  fruit- 
ful earth  into  the  grapes,  and  these 
again  by  His  chemistry  of  fermen- 
tation into  wine?  He  who  formed 
the  natural  laboratory  of  the  vine- 
yard and  who  made  all  the  chemi- 
cal laws  for  wine-making,  shall  He 
be  limited  to  that  only  way  of  gaining 


i6o 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


His  ends?  "  Draw  out,  now,  and  carry  to  the  chief 
steward,"  said  our  Saviour.  Then  came  the  inquiry, 
Wher^  did  this  new  and  delicious  wine  come  from  ? 
The  waiters  knew,  and  they  told  the  miracle.  They 
had  poured  water  into  the  jars  and  drawn  out  wine — 
they  were  sure  the  jars  were  the  same,  they  were 
sure  of  the  water;  and  there  was  the  wine,  wine 
of  .the  first  quality  and  in  immense  quantities.  To 
the  expectant  souls  of  the  new  disciples,  Jesus  was 
by  this  event  revealed  as  a  wonder-worker,  His  glory 
was  manifested  to  them.  It  was  the  first  of  His 
miracles  and  it  profoundly  impressed  the  Saviour's 
followers,  winning  yet  more  securely  their  entire  faith 
in  Him. 


DINING    TABLE   USED   IN   THE   EAST. 


JESUS  CLEANSES  THE  TEMPLE.  1 61 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

JESUS  RETURNS  TO  JERUSALEM  AND  EXPELS  THE 
TRAFFICKERS  FROM  THE  TEMPLE. — HE  PRO- 
CLAIMS HIS  AUTHORITY. 

John  it.  12-22. 

FOR  the  purpose  of  completing  the  apostolic  band, 
as  well  as  to  secure  a  vantage-point  for  His  teaching, 
Jesus  led  the  way  to  Lake  Genesareth,  on  whose 
western  shore,  besides,  was  the  dwelling-place  of  the 
newly  chosen  disciples.  With  Him  and  them  went 
Mary,  and  doubtless  other  earnest  and  pious  women, 
all  forming  His  household,  she  bound  to  Him  by 
every  tie  human  and  divine,  the  others  by  faith 
and  devoted  loyalty.  Capharnaum  became  His  place 
of  sojourn,  much  frequented  by  the  stream  of  traders 
to  and  from  Damascus  and  the  Mediterranean  sea- 
ports, as  well  as  by  the  soldiers  and  officials  of  the 
Roman  government.  The  "brethren"  of  Jesus  also 
accompanied  Him.  We  have  elsewhere  explained 
that  this  word  means  His  cousins,  the  sons  of 
Alpheus. 

Peter  lived  at  Capharnaum,  and  there,  probably  in 
the  house  of  the  wife's  mother  of  the  Apostle,  Jesus 
took  up  His  abode.  But  they  tarried  only  a  few 
days,  soon  departing  for  Jerusalem,  with  the  intention, 
however,  of  returning  to  Galilee.  The  feast  of  the 
Passover  was  near,  and  Jesus  wished  to  test  the  dis- 
positions of  the  people  of  the  capital,  with  its  priestly 
hierarchy  and  its  leading  minds.  Towards  Jerusalem, 
therefore,  He  bent  His  steps. 

Many  generations  before,  Malachias  (iii.  i,  3)  had 
prophesied  of  this  visit  to  Jerusalem :  ' '  Presently 
the  Lord,  whom  you  seek,  shall  come.  And  who  shall 


162 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


be  able  to  abide  the  day  of  His  com- 
ing, and  who  shall  stand  to  see 
Him  ?  for  He  is  like  a  cleansing  fire, 
and  He  shall  cleanse  the  sons  of 
L,evi  and  shall  purify  them."  No 
doubt  Jesus  at  His  former  visits  had 
been  shocked  and  scandalized  at  the 
abuses  in  the  Temple.  But  then 
His  time  had  not  come :  He  was  a 
devout  carpenter  of  Nazareth  and 
nothing  more.  Now  all  is  changed. 
The  rights  of  God  have  in  Him  a 
public  and  official  defender. 

It  was  that  part  of  the  Temple 
devoted  to  the  use  of  Gentile  con- 
verts to  Judaism  which  was  especial- 
ly profaned,  a  splendid  and  spacious 
colonnade   outside  the  Jews'    place 
of   worship.     A   public  market  had 
been  established  in  this  sacred  place. 
Under  its  lofty  ceilings  of  polished 
cedar  wood,  upon  its  shining  marble  terraces,  amid  its 
double  and  triple  rows  of  noble  columns,  money-chang- 
ers and  hucksters  and  traders  were  continually  traffick- 
ing, and  even  cattle-dealers  had  their  bullocks,  sheep, 
and  goats  penned  up  there  for  sale  to  those  who  would 
provide  for  sacrifice  in   the  Temple — all  with  the  ap- 
proval of  the   priestly  guardians   of  the  holy   places, 
doubtless  well  paid   for    granting    the   sacrilegious  li- 
cense.    The  holy  place  was  filthy  with  this  abomina- 
tion, profaned  by  the  shouts  of  the    traders   and   the 
bellowing  of   the  beasts.     It  was  especially  hateful  to 
the  Lord  as  being  a  profanation  of  the  Gentiles'  court. 
Jesus   gazed   upon  it  all  with  indescribable   indig- 
A  MONEY-CHANGER,  nation.     He  suddenly   snatched   up   some   cords   from 


JESUS    CLEANSES    THE    TEMPLE. 

After  this  he  went  down  to  Capharnaum, 
he  and  his  mother,  and  his  brethren,  and 
his  disciples  :  and  they  remained  there  not 
many  days.  And  the  pasch  of  the  Jews 
was  at  hand,  and  Jesus  went  up  to  Jeru- 
salem :  And  he  found  in  the  temple  them 
that  sold  oxen  and  sheep  and  doves,  and 
the  changers  of  money  sitting.  And  when 
he  had  made  as  it  were  a  scourge  of  little 
cords,  he  drove  them  all  out  of  the  temple, 
the  sheep  also  and  the  oxen,  and  the 
money  of  the  changers  he  poured  out,  and 
the  tables  he  overthrew.  And  to  them 
that  sold  doves  he  said  :  Take  these  things 
hence,  and  make  not  the  house  of  my 
Father  a  house  of  traffic.  And  his  dis- 
ciples remembered  that  it  was  written : 
The  zeal  of  thy  house  hath  eaten  me  up. 
The  Jews  therefore  answered,  and  said  to 
him  :  What  sign  dost  thou  shew  unto  us, 
seeing  thou  dost  these  things.  Jesus  an- 
swered and  said  to  them  :  Destroy  this 
temple,  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it 
up.  The  Jews  then  said  :  Six  and  forty 
years  was  this  temple  in  building,  and  wilt 
thou  raise  it  up  in  three  days  ?  But  he 
spoke  of  the  temple  of  his  body.  When 
therefore  he  was  risen  again  from  the  dead, 
his  disciples  remembered  that  he  had  said 
this,  and  they  believed  the  scripture,  and 
the  word  that  Jesus  had  said. 


JESUS  PROCLAIMS  HIS  AUTHORITY. 


163 


the  broken  wrappings  which  strewed  the  pavement. 
His  terrible  voice  pierced  the  uproar  of  beasts  and 
men.  He  whipped  the  animals  and  their  owners  out 
of  the  Temple  ;  He  cast  upon  the'  earth  the  money 
of  the  petty  bankers  and  overturned  their  tables.  In 
His  holy  anger  He  spared  only  those 'who  sold  doves, 
peddlers  for  the  convenience  of 
the  poor.  ' '  Take  these  things 
hence,"  he  said  sternly,  "  and 
make  not  My  Father's  house 
a  house  of  traffic." 

Jesus  was  single-handed 
and  alone  in  His  battle  for  the 
cleanliness,  spiritual  and  ma- 
terial, of  the  house  of  God, 
but  He  was  easily  the  victor. 
Consciousness  of  His  Fath- 
er's authority  endowed  Him 
with  resistless  force  and  awed 
his  adversaries  into  utter 
subjection.  His  disciples 
were  profoundly  edified  and 
no  less  amazed  by  His  daring. 
They  reminded  each  other  of 
the  Psalmist's  prophecy  of  the 
Messias:  "The  zeal  of  thy 
house  hath  eaten  me  up  " 
(Ps.  Ixviii.) 

With  others  the  case  was 
different.  Although  the  action  of  Jesus  was  deeply  re- 
ligious and  at  first  drew  their  admiration,  yet  they  would 
not  admit  that  it  justified  itself.  Habituated  to  legal- 
ism,  addicted  to  formality,  they  were  not  content  with 
plain  evidence  of  right  acting.  They  wanted  authen- 
tication and  credentials.  They  must  have  something  to 


And  the  money  of  the  changers  He  poured 
out,  and  the  tables  He  overthrew." 


164  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

argue  about.  The  tortuous  mind  dislikes  that  simple 
form  of  truth  which  is  independent  of  argumentation. 
They  said:  "What  sign  dost  Thou  show  unto  us, 
seeing  that  Thou  doest  these  things  ?  ' '  Jesus  pur- 
posely answered  in  a  way  far  above  their  compre- 
hension :  He  gave  them,  in  prophecy,  the  highest 
credentials  ever  known  to  man,  His  resurrection  from 
the  dead ;  although  He  veiled  it  under  a  claim  of 
power  over  the  material  edifice  whose  holiness  He 
had  just  vindicated.  "  Destroy  this  temple,  and  in 
three  days  I  will  raise  it  up."  To  build  or  to  de- 
stroy or  to  raise  from  ruin  that  noblest  temple  of 
God,  the  human  body,  is  a  power  infinitely  greater 
than  Solomon's  or  Herod's  in  constructing  the  dead 
architecture  of  a  great  building.  Jesus  can  and  will 
raise  His  own  dead  body  to  life  :  are  they  ready  to 
discuss  that  claim  of  power?  But  what  did  these 
carnal- minded  men  know  of  the  dignity  of  man's 
corporal  frame,  or  of  the  indwelling  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  in  it?  Moreover  the  gesture  which  Jesus  must 
have  made  to  explain  His  meaning,  pointing  to  His 
own  body  when  He  said  the  words  "this  temple,"* 
escaped  their  notice  in  the  rising  tempest  of  their 
wrath.  They  thought  His  answer  an  empty  boast — 
and  moreover,  they  found  on  inquiry  that  He  was 
no  regular  rabbi  at  all,  but  only  a  carpenter  of  Naza- 
reth. So  they  said  with  a  sneer:  "Forty  years  was 
this  Temple  in  building,  and  wilt  Thou  rear  it  up  in 
three  days  ?  ' '  Jesus  answered  nothing — nearly  always 
He  answered  nothing  or  very  mysteriously  to  the 
cross- questionings  of  bad-hearted  men.  To  the  pure 
of  heart  His  answers  were  ever  quick,  and  if  not  al- 

*  It  is  noteworthy  that  in  St.  Mark's  account  of  our  Saviour's  trial 
before  the  chief  priests  the  witnesses  testified  :  "  We  heard  Him  say,  I  will 
destroy  this  i  emple  made  with  hands,  and  within  three  days  I  will  build 
another  not  made  with  hands." 


JESUS  PROCLAIMS  HIS  A  UTHORITY.  165 

ways  intelligible,  their  very  obscurity  shone  with  the 
bright  light  of  truth,  with  present  meaning  or  prophetic. 

But  that  mysterious  three  days'  rebuilding  of  a 
mighty  temple  was  never  forgotten  by  friend  or  foe 
of  Jesus.  It  was  His  first  teaching  in  Jerusalem,  and 
at  the  very  end  of  His  life  we  shall  hear  Him  accused 
of  blasphemy  for  it  in  the  high  court  of  the  Jews; 
it  was  railed  in  scorn  against  Him  even  under  the 
Cross.  His  disciples,  after  having  long  cherished  it 
as  a  test  of  faith  in  Him,  shall  be  transfigured  by 
its  fulfilment  into  envoys  of  the  divine  love  to  man- 
kind. From  another  point  of  view,  the  prophecy  shall 
be  fulfilled  by  the  effacement  of  the  Temple's  author- 
ity at  the  death  of  Christ,  typified  by  the  rending 
of  the  veil  of  its  sanctuary  from  top  to  bottom,  the 
cessation  of  its  rites,  the  suppression  of  the  Mosaic 
religious  system,  and  the  substitution  of  the  King- 
dom of  God  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ. 

We  are  left  to  our  imagination  if  we  ask  what 
might  have  been  the  result  of  this  public  and  fearless 
display  of  the  love  of  Jesus  for  His  Father's  holy 
Temple  if  it  had  been  received  in  a  proper  spirit  by 
the  Jewish  priests  and  scribes.  It  might  have  been 
the  beginning  of  a  sincere  and  universal  awakening 
in  Israel,  carrying  John  the  Baptist's  mission 
triumphantly  everywhere  among  the  people  and  their 
leaders,  and  gaining  the  adhesion  of  the  whole  nation 
to  the  Messias  whom  he  had  announced.  The  public 
life  of  Jesus  would  in  that  case  have  begun  and 
ended  very  differently  from  the  actual  facts.  Had 
the  Jews  known  the  difference  between  the  casket 
and  the  necklace,  between  their  race  and  their  re- 
ligion, they  would  have  received  the  Messias  with 
open  arms  after  His  display  of  power  in  the  cleansing 
of  the  Temple. 


166  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER   IX. 

JESUS  BEGINS  TO  TEACH  IN  JERUSALEM. — THE  IN* 
TERVIEW  WITH  NICODEMUS. 
John  ii.  23-35,  and  Hi-  1-21. 
HE  Jewish  priesthood,  it  was  soon  very  evi- 
dent, was  opposed  to  Jesus,  even  so  far  as  to 
hinder  His  getting  an  audience.  They  would 
not  allow  Him  the  Temple  or  its  precincts  for 
His  discourses  if  thejr  could  prevent  it,  and 
therefore  He  chose  the  more  open  places  in  the 
streets  of  the  city  and  in  the  suburbs,  talk- 
ing to  the  people  in  little  groups  or  in 
great  crowds.  He  worked  miracles  also,  though  St. 
John,  who  alone  tells  us  of  this  sojourn  of  Jesus  in 
Jerusalem,  does  not  particularize  them.  "Now  when 
He  was  at  Jerusalem  at  the  Pasch  upon  the  festival 
day,  many  believed  in  His  name,  seeing  His  signs 
which  He  did."  Amazement  at  His  miracles  was 
not  always  a  sign  of  true  faith  in  His  Messias-ship. 
Although  everybody  began  to  talk  about  Him,  and 
although  numbers  were  sincerely  won,  Jesus  knew 
men  too  well  to  trust  to  the  general  sentiment  about 
Him.  "  But  Jesus  did  not  trust  Himself  unto  them, 
for  that  He  knew  all  men,  and  because  He  needed 
not  that  any  should  give  testimony  of  man  ;  for  He 
knew  what  was  in  man." 

In  fact,  the  history  of  religion  proves  that  onl}r  a 
few  are  gifted  quickly  to  discern  true  miracles  and 
understand  their  significance ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  common  mass  of  men  are  readily  led  astray 
by  false  wonders  and  often  misinterpret  the  meaning  of 
true  ones.  Hence,  if  it  be  asked  how  the  enemies  of 
Jesus  could  resist  the  evidence  of  His  miracles,  the 
answer  is,  that  they  had  made  up  their  minds  be- 


JESUS  BEGINS  TO  TEACH  IN  JERUSALEM.  167 

forehand  that  He  was  not  the  Christ.  Have  we 
not  in  our  own  day  often  heard  men  of  science  say 
that  if  they  saw  a  miracle  or  many  of  them  with  their 
own  eyes  they  would  not  believe  them  real  ?  The 
capacities  of  faith  are  great,  but  s6  are  the  capacities 
of  incredulity. 

Nicodemus  was  a  man  capable  of  true  faith.  He 
was  a  leading  Pharisee,  a  doctor  of  the  law,  a  well- 
known  personage  in  Jerusalem.  Had  he  been  half 
as  brave  in  professing  the  truth  as  he  was  anxious  to 
learn  it,  his  character  would  have  been  well  balanced. 
He  managed  to  gain  access  to  a  private  meeting 
held  by  Jesus  after  nightfall,  in  which  our  Saviour 
discoursed  freely  with  His  chosen  disciples ;  John 
was  one  of  these,  and  thus  was  probably  an  eye-wit- 
ness of  this  interview,  of  which  he  has  given  an 
account.  "  Rabbi,"  said  Nicodemus,  "we  know  that 
Thou  art  come  a  teacher  from  God,  for  no  man  can 
do  these  signs  which  Thou  dost  unless  God  be  with 
him."  He  and  his  friends  had  honestly  read  the 
divine  credentials  of  Jesus,  His  miracles.  A  miracle 
is  the  seal  of  heaven  upon  the  message  of  a  man  of 
God :  the  Deity  thereby  assumes  responsibility  for 
His  truthfulness.  Here,  then,  Nicodemus  recognized 
a  Teacher  whose  authority  transcended  that  of  the 
official  teaching  of  the  Jews,  for  this  strange  Teacher 
from  Galilee  had  God's  glorious  power  of  miracles — 
Nicodemus  had  seen  Him  display  it  openly  and 
repeatedly.  Furthermore,  a  timid  soul  admires  a 
courageous  one,  and  so  Nicodemus  was  drawn  to  our 
Saviour  by  His  bold  attack  on  the  venders  in  the 
Temple. 

We  notice  the  air  of  authority  on  the  part  of 
Jesus  in  dealing  with  this  first-fruit  from  the  higher 
ranks  of  Judaism.  He  gives  Nicodemus  an  instruction 


THE    NEW    BIRTH. 

And  there  was  a  man  of  the  Pharisees 
named  Nicodemus,  a  ruler  of  the  Jews. 
This  man  came  to  Jesus  by  night,  and  said 
to  him  :  Rabbi,  we  know  that  thou  art 
come  a  teacher  from  God  ;  for  no  man  can 
do  these  signs  which  thou  dost,  unless  God 
be  with  him.  Jesus  answered,  and  said  to 
him :  Amen,  amen  I  say  to  thee,  unless  a 
man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Nicodemus  saith  to 
him  :  How  can  a  man  be  born  when  he 
is  old  ?  can  lie  enter  a  second  time  into  his 
mother's  womb,  and  be  born  again  ?  Jesus 
answered  :  Amen,  amen  I  say  to  thee,  un- 
less a  man  be  born  again  of  water  and  the 
Holy  Ghost,  he  cannot  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  God.  That  which  is  born  of 
the  flesh,  is  flesh  :  and  that  which  is  born 
of  the  Spirit,  is  spirit.  Wonder  not,  that 
I  said  to  thee,  you  must  be  born  again. 
The  Spirit  breatheth  where  he  will ;  and 
thou  hearest  his  voice,  but  thou  knowest 
not  whence  he  cometh  and  whither  he 

§oeth  ;  so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the 
pirit.  Nicodemus  answered,  and  said  to 
him :  How  can  these  things  be  done  ? 
Jesus  answered,  and  said  to  him  :  Art  thou 
a  master  in  Israel,  and  knowest  not  these 
things  ?  Amen,  amen  I  say  to  thee,  that 
we  speak  what  we  know,  and  we  testify 
what  we  have  seen,  and  you  receive  not  our 
testimony.  If  I  have  spoken  to  you  earth- 
ly things,  and  you  believe  not :  how  will 
you  believe  if  I  shall  speak  to  you  heavenly 
things  ?  And  no  man  hath  ascended  into 
heaven,  but  he  that  descended  from  heaven, 
the  Son  of  Man  who  is  in  heaven.  And  as 
Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  desert, 
so  must  the  Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up  :  That 
whosoever  believeth  in  him  may  not 
perish,  but  may  have  life  everlasting.  For 
God  so  loved  the  world,  as  to  give  his  only 
begotten  Son  :  that  whosoever  believeth  in 
him,  may  not  perish,  but  may  have  life 
everlasting.  For  God  sent  not  his  Son 
into  the  world,  to  judge  the  world,  but 
that  the  world  may  be  saved  by  him.  He 
that  believeth  in  him  is  not  judged.  But 
he  that  doth  not  believe,  is  already  judged  : 
because  he  believeth  not  in  the  name  of 
the  only  begotten  Son  of  God.  And  this 
is  the  judgment :  because  the  light  is  come 
into  the  world,  and  men  loved  darkness 
rather  than  the  light :  for  their  works  were 
evil.  For  every  one  that  doth  evil  hateth 
the  light,  and  cometh  not  to  the  light,  that 
his  works  may  not  be  reproved.  But  he 
that  doth  truth,  cometh  to  the  light,  that 
his  works  may  be  made  manifest  because 
they  are  done  in  God. 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

for  receiving  baptism,  as  we  would 
term  the  discourse.  But  it  included 
the  most  sublime  of  all  the  doctrines 
of  Christ,  that  of  the  new  birth,  the 
new  life  of  our  souls  in  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Every  man,  even  this  learn- 
ed and  pious  Hebrew  teacher,  shall 
be  made  over  again,  his  powers  of 
knowing  and  loving  entering  upon 
a  new  order  of  existence  so  radically 
different  from  the  old  as  to  be  called 
another  creation — as  much  higher 
than  the  first  as  the  divine  is  higher 
than  the  human.  Thoughts  and 
loves  natural  only  to  God  are  now  to 
be  the  privilege  of  the  mind  and 
heart  of  man  in  a  more  than  natural 
condition.  Jesus  did  not  hesitate  to 
express  the  change  in  fitting  terms  : 
"  Amen,  Amen,  I  say  to  thee,  unless 
a  man  be  born  again  of  water  and 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  cannot  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  God."  Though 
this  sounded  strangely  to  the  ears 
of  a  strict  Pharisee,  one  who  had 
never  doubted  his  high  place  in  the 
only  kingdom  of  God,  that  of  Israel, 
and  though  he  made  objections,  yet 
Jesus  went  on  with  His  discourse 
and  won  him  with  His  doctrine  of 
the  Spirit. 

The  explanation  which  was  grant- 
ed this  timid  disciple  of  Jesus  was 
that  the  elements  of  inanimate  nature 
should  be  lifted  into  union  with  the 

168 


THE  INTERVIEW  WITH  NICODEMUS. 


169 


highest  life  of  the  uncreated  Divinity — water  and  spirit 
shall  go  together.  Not  a  narrow  race  of  men,  as  in  the 
old  dispensation,  shall  be  the  outward  sign  of  divine 
favor,  but  a  system  of  universal,  sacraments ;  and 
these  shall  not  merely  be  signs  but  channels  of  God's 
grace.  The  first  of  these  is  that  of  John  the  Baptist, 
elevated  into  new  and  strange  supremacy.  The  gate 
of  exit  of  the  old  and  temporary  Church  is  trans- 
formed into  the  splendid  portal  of  the  new  and 
eternal  Church.  The  difference  between  the  Hebrew 
baptism  of  penance  and  Christ's  baptism  of  the  Spirit, 
is  the  difference  between  the  Baptist  and  the  Christ. 

The  disciple  of  Christ  is  dead  and  buried  with 
Him  in  Baptism,  to  rise  again  unto  newness  of 
life ;  dead  to  the  world  and  the  flesh,  he  comes 
forth  to  begin  to  live  over  again.  He  is  actually 
changed  from  his  former  self,  stripped  of  his  evil 
deeds  and  morally  transformed,  for  baptism  is  not 
simply  a  sign  of  interior  cleansing  ;  it  is  the  adop- 
tion of  sonship  to  God.  Christian  Baptism  is 
thus  more  than  repentance,  more  than  deliverance 
from  evil.  The  Spirit  of  God  breathes  a  new  life 
into  the  soul ;  new  tendencies  to  positive  virtue 
supplant  the  sinful  conditions  banished  by  re- 
pentance. Dead  to  sin,  the  soul  lives  to  grace  and  is 
guided  by  the  intimate  whisper  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  water  and  the  Spirit  regenerate  the  soul,  our 
Saviour  insisting  on  the  spiritual  state  of  His  followers 
as  positively  a  new  birth,  a  new  act  of  creation.  "  That 
which  is  born  of  the  flesh,"  He  said,  "is  flesh,  and 
that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit.  Wonder  not 
that  I  said  to  thee,  You  must  be  born  again.  The  Spirit 
breatheth  where  He  will ;  and  thou  hearest  His  voice, 
but  thou  knowest  not  whence  He  cometh  and  whither 
He  goeth  :  so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit," 


"  Nicodemus  said  :  '  Ho 
can  these  things  be  done  ? ' 


iyo  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

The  soul  of  man  cannot  work  its  own  new  birth ; 
the  breath  of  the  Divine  Spirit  must  sweep  through  it, 
like  the  fruitful  south  wind  upon  a  garden.  This 
breathing  of  the  Spirit  fecundates  the  soul  with  divine 
virtues.  How  it  does  this,  we  know  not.  But  we 
feel  it ;  we  are  conscious  of  it  in  our  heart's  depths, 
and  suddenly,  or  gradually  and  imperceptibly,  we  are 
transformed,  we  are  born  again.  The  fact  is  evident ; 
it  reveals  its  own  existence.  We  are  made  over 
again  into  new  men.  Nicodemus  began  to  under- 
stand this  amazing  teaching,  and  he  cried:  "How 
can  these  things  be?" — as  if  to  imply,  and  I  not 
know  them  ?  Then  said  Jesus,  with  gentle  irony : 
"  Art  thou  a  master  in  Israel  and  knowest  not  these 
things  ?  ' '  Meaning  that  the  petty  disputes  of  the 
Pharisees  about  minute  observances  unfitted  one  to 
study  a  great  question;  for  here  was  a  Pharisee,  a 
teacher  in  Israel,  totally  ignorant  of  a  doctrine  which 
outranks  all  others  in  the  school  of  divine  truth. 

And  now  our  Saviour,  amid  His  newly  gathered 
disciples,  simple  men,  unlearned  and  lowly,  identifies 
Himself  with  these  docile  spirits,  and  using  the  first 
person  plural  thereby  affirms  their  unity  with  Him  in 
His  teaching  office  :  "  Amen,  Amen  I  say  to  thee,  we 
speak  what  we  know,  and  we  testify  what  we  have 
seen,  and  you  receive  not  our  testimony."  The 
haughty  teachers  of  the  Hebrew  people  have  found 
it  hard  to  understand  the  truths  of  natural  religion, 
which  are  verified  by  the  unaided  conscience ;  how, 
then,  shall  they  manage  with  the  deep  secrets  of 
Heaven,  which  must  be  accepted  on  the  direct  testi- 
mony of  the  Teacher?  "If,"  said  Jesus,  "I  have 
spoken  to  you  earthly  things,  and  you  believe  not, 
how  will  you  believe  if  I  speak  to  you  heavenly 
things  ?  And  no  man  hath  ascended  into  heaven, 


THE  INTER  VIE  W  Wl  TH  N1CODEM  US.  171 

but  He  that  hath  descended  from  heaven,  the  Son 
of  Man  who  is  in  heaven."  Nicodemus  was  silenced. 
The  words  of  Jesus  overwhelmed  him  with  wonder  ; 
they  were  the  words  of  a  masterful  *  teacher  revealing 
His  divine  authority. 

Jesus  ended  by  teaching  him  the  Redemption : 
* '  And  as  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  desert, 
so  must  the  Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up  :  that  whosoever 
believe th  in  Him  shall  not  perish,  but  may  have  life 
everlasting."  Here  was  affirmed  the  plainest  analogy 
between  the  brazen  serpent  (Num.  xxi.  9),  set  up 
in  the  desert  by  Moses,  and  Christ  upon  the  Cross. 
The  brazen  serpent  was  an  image  of  the  living 
serpents  whose  fiery  sting  had  killed  the  sinful 
Hebrews :  their  penitent  and  imploring  glances  at 
the  image-serpent  saved  them.  And  so  the  Son  of 
Man  on  the  Cross  is  the  image  of  guilty  humanity, 
living,  suffering,  dying,  in  His  all-sufficing  atone- 
ment ;  the  sinner  who  looks  with  entire  faith  and 
with  loving  repentance  upon  Him  shall  be  cleansed 
of  the  poison  in  His  soul  and  restored  to  spiritual 
health.  "For  God  so  loved  the  world,"  exclaims 
Jesus,  "as  to  give  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  who- 
soever believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have 
life  everlasting."  Thus  it  is  the  spontaneous  love  of 
the  Father's  heart  for  His  wayward  child,  for  poor  hu- 
manity, that  gave  us  our  Saviour — not  for  the  re- 
deeming of  one  nation,  but  for  the  entire  human  race 
has  He  given  His  own  Son. 

And  Jesus  continued  :  ' '  For  God  sent  not  His  Son 
into  the  world  to  judge  the  world,  but  that  the  world 
might  be  saved  by  Him."  The  Jews  believed  that 
the  Messias  would  judge,  condemn,  and  subjugate 
the  nations  of  the  earth.  Jesus  affirms  the  contrary  : 
He  will  save  all  who  will  allow  Him  to  do  so  ;  those 


172  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

who  will  not  allow  Him  are  self -judged  and  self- 
condemned.  "He  that  believeth  in  Him  is  not 
judged;  but  he  that  believeth  not  is  condemned  al- 
ready, because  he  hath  not  believed  in  the  name  of 
the  only  begotten  Son  of  God."  Men  are  divided  into 
good  and  evil  by  their  love  and  hatred  of  the  truth 
of  God.  "This  is  the  condemnation,  that  light  is 
come  into  the  world,  and  men  loved  darkness  rather 
than  light,  because  their  deeds  were  evil."  These 
words  consoled  the  upright  heart  of  Nicodemus,  who 
had  sought  the  truth  and  who,  without  fully  under- 
standing it,  bowed  down  before  it. 

The  soul  that  hungers  and  thirsts  after  righteous- 
ness and  truth  is  worthy  of  praise  from  the  lips  of  the 
Messias.  But,  as  too  often  happens  with  virtuous 
souls,  the  courage  of  Nicodemus  was  less  than  his 
sincerity ;  he  never  dared  openly  proclaim  his  faith 
in  Jesus.  Later  on  he  timidly  pleaded  for  the  Sav- 
iour's life  before  the  Sanhedrin,  but  without  insist- 
ing, and  with  an  air  of  almost  indifference.  But  we 
shall  see  him  on  Calvary  changed  into  a  true  dis- 
ciple, ashamed  no  longer  of  Jesus,  but  rather  ashamed 
of  his  own  former  cowardice.  During  the  Redeemer's 
life  he  had  crept  in  secret  to  visit  Him ;  now  when 
He  is  dead  he  boldly  and  publicly  claims  Him  from 
His  enemies,  sharing  with  Joseph  of  Arimathea  the 
sorrowful  honor  of  burying  Him. 


FINAL  WITNESS  OF  JOHN. 


173 


HE    MUST 


INCREASE  ;   BUT 
CREASE." 


CHAPTER  X. 

TEACHING     IN     THE     COUNTRY-PEACES. — FINAI,     WIT- 
NESS   OF    JOHN. 

John  Hi.  22-36.  "' 

JESUS  was  fond  of  country  people  and  loved  to  be 
with  them  and  to  teach  them.  To  them  He  went  out 
from  Jerusalem,  the  Evangelist  not  stating  how  long 
a  time  He  had  remained  in  the  city.  "After  these 
things,  Jesus  and  His  disciples  came  into  the  land  of 
Judea,  and  there  He  abode  with  them  and  baptized." 
This  was  only  the  baptism  of  John,  which  Jesus  per- 
sonally did  not  administer  but  His 
disciples,  as  the  Evangelist  tells  us 
further  on:  He  would  have  His 
apostles  co-operate  with  John  in  his 
preparation  for  the  Messias.  The 
Baptist,  meanwhile,  had  left  the 
banks  of  the  Jordan.  "And  John 
also  was  baptizing  in  Enon  near 
Salim,  because  there  was  much 
water  there,  and  they  [the  people] 
came  and  were  baptized.  For  John 
was  not  yet  cast  into  prison."  This 
change  of  place  removed  the  Baptist 
from  the  reach  of  Herod,  whose  in- 
cest with  his  brother  Philip's  wife 
he  had  boldly  reproved. 

And  now  Jesus  came  into  the 
same  neighborhood  with  John,  not 
only  to  strengthen  him  in  his  strug- 
gle with  the  tyrant,  but  to  draw  from 
him  a  final  witness  of  His  own  office 
of  Messias.  The  disciples  of  John 
and  of  Jesus,  being  thus  brought  to- 


I    MUST     DE- 


And  there  arose  a  question  between 
some  of  John's  disciples  and  the  Jews  con- 
cerning purification.  And  they  came  to 
John,  and  said  to  him  :  Rabbi,  he  that  was 
with  thee  beyond  the  Jordan,  to  whom 
thou  gavest  testimony,  behold,  he  baptizeth, 
and  all  men  come  to  him.  John  answered 
and  said  :  A  man  cannot  receive  any- 
thing except  it  be  given  him  from  heaven. 
You  yourselves  do  bear  me  witness,  that  I 
said,  I  am  not  the  Christ,  but  that  I  am 
sent  before  him.  He  that  hath  the  bride, 
is  the  bridegroom  :  but  the  friend  of  the 
bridegroom,  who  standeth  and  heareth 
him,  rejoiceth  with  joy  because  of  the 
bridegroom's  voice.  This  my  joy,  there- 
fore, is  fulfilled.  He  must  increase  ;  but  I 
must  decrease.  He  that  cometh  from 
above,  is  above  all.  He  that  is  of  the 
earth,  of  the  earth  he  is,  and  of  the  earth 
he  speaketh.  He  that  cometh  from  heaven, 
is  above  all.  And  what  he  hath  seen,  and 
heard,  that  he  testifieth  :  and  no  man  re- 
ceiveth  his  testimony  He  that  hath  re- 
ceived his  testimony,  ha«;h  attested  by  his 
seal  that  God  is  true.  For  he  whom  God 
hath  sent,  speaketh  the  words  of  God  :  for 
God  doth  not  give  the  Spirit 'by  measure. 
The  Father  loveth  the  Son  :  and  he  hath 
given  all  things  into  his  hand.  He  that  be- 
lieveth  in  the  Son,  hath  life  everlasting  : 
but  he  that  believeth  not  the  Son,  shall  not 
see  life  ;  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on 
him. 


174  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

gether,  began  to  dispute  about  the  baptisms  of  their  re- 
spective masters,  and  the  preference  given  to  the  latter 
chagrined  the  followers  of  the  Precursor.  But  the 
soul  of  the  Baptist  was  thrilled  with  joy,  and  not,  as 
they  had  hoped,  with  anger.  John  had  been  com- 
missioned by  Heaven  to  prepare  the  way  for  Jesus; 
he  could  only  be  glad  to  know  that  the  Messias  was 
drawing  the  people  about  Him  and  teaching  them. 
' '  You  yourselves  do  bear  me  witness  that  I  said  I 
am  not  the  Christ,"  he  insisted,  "  but  that  I  am  sent 
before  Him.  He  that  hath  the  bride  is  the  bride- 
groom: but  the  friend  of  the  bridegroom,  who  stand- 
eth  and  heareth  him,  rejoiceth  with  joy  because  of 
the  bridegroom's  voice.  This  my  joy,  therefore,  is 
fulfilled."  John  thus  claims  the  honor  of  the  Shosh- 
ben,  the  intermediary  between  bride  and  groom  among 
the  Jews,  who  bore  their  affectionate  messages, 
prepared  the  marriage  and  superintended  its  cere- 
monies. So  John  was  the  Shoshbeu  between  Jesus 
Christ  and  His  Church  (Kph.  v.  32),  His  Spouse. 
When  he  had  given  to  the  loving  company  of  Jesus 
His  first  disciples,  John,  Peter,  and  Andrew,  he  re- 
joiced to  see  the  union  of  bride  and  groom  begun. 
Yet  more  he  now  rejoices  to  see  it  extending  and 
perfecting  itself  in  the  souls  of  a  multitude  of  dis- 
ciples. He  is  glad  to  withdraw,  his  task  well  done. 
"  He  must  increase,  but  I  must  decrease,"  he  ex- 
claimed. And  his  disciples  must  bear  their  part  in 
this  order  of  Providence.  He  continued  addressing 
them,  and  in  words  so  like  our  Saviour's  to  Nico- 
demus  that  it  has  been  supposed  that  he  had  received 
them  from  some  of  his  old  followers  in  an  account 
of  that  interview.  "He  that  cometh  from  above  is 
above  all :  he  that  is  of  the  earth  is  earthly,  and 
speaketh  of  the  earth."  The  misery  of  it  is  that  so 


THE  IMPRISONMEN  T  OF  JOHN  THE  BAP  T1ST.    175 

few  hear  Him — nobody  at  all,  to  John's  eager  eyes, 
though  his  disciples  said  it  was  everybody — "And 
no  man  receiveth  His  testimony."  But  "  He  that  hath 
received  His  testimony  hath  set  to  his  seal  that  God 
is  true."  Faith  in  Jesus  is  a  direct  .submission  to  the 
God  of  truth,  whom  He  represents  as  the  tongue  does 
the  heart,  as  John  best  knew  after  the  divine  mani- 
festations at  the  baptism  of  Jesus.  And  now  he  con- 
cludes ;  it  is  with  the  threatening  tones  peculiar  to  his 
character:  "  He  that  believeth  in  the  Son,  hath  ever- 
lasting life:  and  he  that  believeth  not  the  Son,  shall 
not  see  life;  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him." 
The  Precursor  knows  that  his  work  is  nearly 
ended,  as  his  words  indicate.  They  have  the  accent 
of  farewell.  A  brief  period  of  steadfast  reproval 
of  vice  and  loud  resounding  calls  to  repentance  still 
remains  to  him,  and  then  a  glorious  martyrdom  will 
crown  the  career  of  this  stern  Hebrew  prophet  with 
its  appropriate  glory. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    IMPRISONMENT   OP    JOHN    THE     BAPTIST. — JESUS 
AND    THE    SAMARITAN    WOMAN. 

Matt.  iv.  12  ;  Mark  i.  14.  ;  Luke  Hi.  19,  20  ;  John  iv.  1-26. 

JESUS  now  takes  His  way  towards  Galilee,  to  avoid 
the  envious  contentions  of  John's  over- loyal  disciples 
as  well  as  the  intrigues  of  the  Pharisees.  "  When 
Jesus  therefore  understood  that  the  Pharisees  had 
heard  that  Jesus  maketh  more  disciples,  and  baptizeth 
more  than  John  (though  Jesus  Himself  did  not  bap- 
tize, but  His  disciples),  He  left  Judea."  Another 
reason  hurried  Him  away  from  Judea :  He  heard  the 
ominous  news  that  John  had  been  seized  and  im- 
prisoned in  the  Perea  by  Herod  Antipas.  "  But 


JESUS  TEACHES    THE    SAMARITAN    WOMAN. 

He  cometh,  therefore,  to  a  city  of  Sa- 
maria which  is  called  Sichar ;  near  the 
piece  of  ground  which  Jacob  gave  to  his 
son  Joseph.  Now  Jacob's  well  was  there. 
Jesus,  therefore,  being  wearied  with  his 
journey,  sat  thus  on  the  well.  It  was  about 
the  sixth  hour.  There  cometh  a  woman 
of  Samaria,  to  draw  water.  Jesus  saith  to 
her :  Give  me  to  drink  :  (for  his  disciples 
were  gone  into  the  city  to  buy  food. )  Then 
that  Samaritan  woman  saith  to  him  :  How 
dost  thou,  being  a  Jew,  ask  of  me  to  drink, 
who  am  a  Samaritan  woman  ?  For  the 
Jews  do  not  communicate  with  the  Samari- 
tans. Jesus  answered,  and  said  to  her  :  If 
thou  didst  know  the  gift  of  God,  and  who 
it  is  that  saith  to  thee,  give  me  to  drink  ; 
thou,  perhaps,  wouldst  have  asked  of  him, 
and  he  would  have  given  thee  living  water. 
The  woman  saith  to  him  :  Sir,  thou  hast 
nothing  wherein  to  draw,  and  the  well  is 
deep  :  from  whence  then  hast  thou  living 
water  ?  Art  thou  greater  than  our  father 
Jacob,  who  gave  us  the  well,  and  drank 
thereof  himself,  and  his  children,  and  his 
cattle  ?  Jesus  answered,  and  said  to  her  : 
Whosoever  drinketh  of  this  water,  shall 
thirst  again  :  but  he  that  shall  drink  of  the 
water  that  I  shall  give  him,  shall  not  thirst 
"or  ever.  But  the  water  that  I  shall  give 
him,  shall  become  in  him  a  fountain  of 
water,  springing  up  unto  everlasting  life. 
The  woman  saith  to  him  :  Sir,  give  me  this 
water,  that  I  may  not  thirst,  nor  come 
hither  to  draw.  Jesus  saith  to  her :  Go, 
call  thy  husband,  and  come  hither.  The 
woman  answered,  and  said  :  I  have  no 
lusband.  Jesus  said  to  her :  Thou  hast 
said  well,  I  have  no  husband.  For  thou 
hast  had  five  husbands  :  and  he  whom  thou 
now  hast,  is  not  thy  husband.  This  thou 
last  said  truly.  The  woman  saith  to  him  : 
Sir,  I  perceive  that  thou  art  a  prophet. 
Our  fathers  adored  on  this  mountain  : 
and  you  say,  that  at  Jerusalem  is  the 
place  where  men  must  adore.  Jesus  saith 
o  her:  Woman,  believe  me  the  hour 
cometh,  when  you  shall  neither  on  this 
mountain  nor  in  Jerusalem  adore  the  Fath- 
er You  adore  that  which  you  know  not  : 
we  adore  that  which  we  know  :  for  salva- 
:ion  is  of  the  Jews.  But  the  hour  cometh, 
and  now  is,  when  the  true  adorer  shall 
adore  the  Father  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 
For  the  Father  also  seeketh  such  to  adore 
him.  God  is  a  spirit :  and  they  that  adore 
him,  must  adore  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 
The  woman  saith  to  him  :  I  know  that  the 
Messias  cometh  (who  is  called  Christ)  : 
therefore,  when  he  is  come,  he  will  tell  us 
all  things.  Jesus  saith  to  her:  I  am  he, 
who  am  speaking  with  thee. 


LIFE  Of  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Herod  the  Tetrarch,  when  he  was 
reproved  by  him  [John]  for  Hero- 
dias,  his  brother's  wife,  and  for  all 
the  evils  which  Herod  had  done,  he 
added  this  also  above  all,  and  shut 
up  John  in  prison.  And  when  Jesus 
had  heard  that  John  was  delivered 
up,  He  retired  into  Galilee.  And 
He  was  of  necessity  to  pass  through 
Samaria."  This  road  to  the  north 
was  the  direct  one,  but  was  often 
avoided  on  account  of  the  enmity  of 
the  Samaritans.  But  Jesus  had  Glad 
Tidings  even  for  the  hated  and  hos- 
tile Samaritans.  Furthermore,  the 
other  route  was  dangerous,  being 
through  the  Perea,  where  Herod 
held  John  captive. 

As  Jesus  arrived  near  a  city  called 
Sichar,  close  by  the  field  which 
Jacob  gave  to  his  son  Joseph,  He 
made  a  halt ;  it  was  noon  of  a  hot 
summer's  day,  and  after  many  hours 
afoot  Jesus  was  tired  and  thirsty ;  He 
sat  down  upon  the  wall  of  Jacob's 
well  in  the  refreshing  shade  of  the 
trees  which  grew  about  it,  while  His 
disciples  went  into  the  city  to  buy 
food.  A  woman  came  to  the  well  to 
draw  water,  and  the  kind  heart  of 
Jesus  determined  to  engage  her  in 
conversation,  to  instruct  her  and  to 
save  her — well  He  knew  her  sad 
necessity.  With  a  friendly  air  He 
said  to  her:  "Woman,  give  me  to 
176 


JESVS  AND  THE  SAMARITAN  WOMAN. 


177 


drink."  Now,  this  poor  soul  was  flattered  by  such  a 
request  coming  from  a  noble-looking  stranger,  and  es- 
pecially so  because  she  perceived  by  His  dress  and 
accent  that  He  was  a  Jew.  How  safely  may  one  cross 
the  line  of  fire  between  hostile  families  and  races  when 
protected  by  a  kindly  word  ! 

She  was  a  woman  of  evil  life,  and  doubtless  no  very 
firm  believer  in  any  religion.  Her  answer  to  Jesus 
was  -:.  reminder  of  the  race-hatred  :  "  How  dost  Thou, 
being  a  Jew,  ask  of  me  to  drink,  who  am  a  Samaritan 
woman?  "  The  thirst  of  Jesus  for  souls  was  His  great 
thirst ;  and  absorbed  in  His  purpose  to  save  this  poor 
soul  He  says  no  more  about  His  bodily  thirst.  In 
a  tone  of  gentle  reproof  He  answers  :  "  If  thou  didst 
know  the  gift  of  God,  and 
who  it  is  that  saith  to  thee, 
Give  me  to  drink,  thou  per- 
haps wouldst  have  asked  of 
Him,  and  He  would  have 
given  thee  living  water." 
These  gentle  words,  the  kind- 
ly glance,  the  friendly  tone, 
transfix  the  poor  woman.  It 
is  by  such  means  that  the 
divine  mercy  makes  the  way 
of  salvation  easy  to  immortal 
souls. 

What  Jesus  said  and  the 
way  He  said  it  meant  this : 
Didst  thou  but  know  how 
God  has  watched  over  thee, 
chosen  this  hour  and  this 
place  for  thy  eternal  welfare, 
led  thee  this  very  moment  to 
the  holy  well,  given  thirst  to 


There  cometh  a  woman  of  Samaria  to  draw  water," 


178  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

His  Son  that  He  might  ask  thee  to  give  Him  a  drink 
and  so  be  brought  to  listen  to  Him — if  thou  didst  but 
know  the  gift  of  God  !  The  woman  was  deeply  moved, 
her  soul  was  stirred  by  these  words  :  "  the  gift  of  God," 
11  the  living  water,"  "  if  thou  didst  know."  She  could 
but  stammer  forth  something  about  the  well  and  its 
waters  :  ' '  Sir,  Thou  hast  nothing  wherein  to  draw,  and 
the  well  is  deep :  from  whence  then  hast  Thou  living 
water  ?  ' '  Upon  which  Jesus  gives  her  still  deeper 
draughts  of  His  spiritual  waters.  Pointing  to  the  well, 
He  says  :  ' '  Whosoever  drinketh  of  this  water  shall 
thirst  again  :  but  he  that  shall  drink  of  the  water  that  I 
shall  give  him  shall  not  thirst  for  ever."  She  did  not 
yet  know  what  He  meant ;  but  by  this  time  she  sus- 
pected Jesus  to  be  a  wonder-worker.  "Sir,  give  me 
this  water,  that  I  may  not  thirst,  nor  come  hither  to 
draw."  Upon  which  Jesus  rewarded  her  dawning  faith 
by  not  alone  promising  her  the  waters  of  eternal  life, 
but  by  showing  her  His  knowledge  and  mastery  of  all 
life,  and  hers  in  particular.  "Go,  call  thy  husband, 
and  come  hither."  This  touched  a  sore  spot,  and 
she  gave  an  evasive  answer,  the  usual  refuge  of  de- 
tected vice.  She  said  that  she  had  no  husband. 
Jesus  closed  with  this  instantly:  "Thou  hast  said 
well,  I  have  no  husband,  for  thou  hast  had  five 
husbands,  and  he  whom  thou  now  hast  is  not  thy 
husband."  This  was  lightning  from  a  blue  sky  to 
the  poor  erring  creature.  The  woman  saw  that  she 
was  known  to  the  stranger,  all  her  adulterous  wicked- 
ness fully  revealed  to  this  mysterious  man,  her  sepa- 
rations and  divorces  and  infidelities,  and  her  present 
connection  in  violation  of  all  law.  She  does  not  deny 
it,  she  cannot ;  she  does  not  excuse  her  sinfulness. 
"Sir,"  said  she — let  us  hope  with  real  sorrow — "I 
perceive  that  Thou  art  a  prophet."  And  then  sudden* 


JESUS  AND 'THE  SAMARITAN  WOMAN. 


179 


ly,  and  with  the  resource  of  female  ingenuity,  she  inter- 
rupted the  further  shameful  disclosures  which  she 
dreaded,  by  saying:  "Our  fathers  adored  on  this 
mountain  [Gerazim],  and  you  say  that  at  Jerusalem 
is  the  place  where  men  must  adore." 

Jesus  benignantly  yielded  to  her  shamefaced  sub- 
terfuge, and  from  paternal  admonition  passed  to 
doctrine:  "Woman,  believe 
Me  the  hour  cometh  when 
you  shall  neither  on  this 
mountain  nor  in  Jerusalem 
adore  the  Father."  This 
was  equivalent  to  saying  that 
all  national  religions  were  to 
be  absorbed,  so  far  as  they 
were  true,  in  the  new  and 
universal  Church  of  God. 
But  Jesus  must  maintain  the 
ancient  faith  of  God  and  the 
rights  of  His  Temple.  ' '  Ye 
adore  ye  know  not  what :  we 
know  what  we  adore  ;  for  sal- 
vation is  of  the  Jews."  In 
fact,  the  Samaritans  rejected 
the  Temple  which  God  had 
founded ;  they  rejected  the 
prophets  whom  God  had  in- 
spired, holding  only  to  the 
Pentateuch ;  and  they  were 


"  He  that  shall  drink  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give 
him,  shall  not  thirst  for  ever." 


fatally  infected  with  idolatrous  practices  handed  down 
from  their  Assyrian  forefathers. 

Jesus  does  not  stop  ;  He  develops  the  further  and 
completer  truth.  "  But  the  hour  cometh,  and  now 
is,  when  the  true  adorers  shall  adore  the  Father  in 
spirit  and  in  truth."  Above  all  things  the  religion 


i8o  L)*E  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

now  beginning  is  one  of  the  interior  life  of  man,  al- 
though external  worship  shall  not  be  lacking.  The 
temples,  ceremonies,  priesthood  of  the  new  law  shall 
be  perfect  in  their  beauty  and  holiness.  But  they 
shall  in  addition  be  infinitely  more  spiritual  than  were 
the  former  rites  and  the  ancient  priesthood  ;  nay, 
the  new  external  forms  shall  be  so  adapted  to  develop 
the  interior  union  of  the  soul  with  God  as  to  be  in 
literal  truth  the  outward  signs  of  the  indwelling 
Spirit.  The  dispensation  of  the  time  that  cometh  and 
now  is  must  be  perfect  spirituality.  The  paramount 
purpose  of  God  is  to  build  for  Himself  and  consecrate 
and  inhabit  an  invisible  temple,  that  of  faith  and  hope 
and  love  in  the  souls  of  men.  In  that  temple  there 
shall  be  a  Holy  of  Holies  where  the  soul  shall  commune 
alone  with  God  ;  there  shall  we  immolate  our  pride,  our 
self-seeking,  our  natural  passions.  A  spiritual  whole- 
burnt  sacrifice  is  what  God  wants.  And  there  is  none 
which  man  can  offer  to  God  so  worthy  of  the  divine 
majesty  as  his  own  thoughts  and  affections  and  pur- 
poses. Such  is  the  meaning  of  Jesus  in  saying  :  "  God 
is  a  spirit :  and  they  that  adore  Him,  must  adore  Him 
in  spirit  and  in  truth." 

The  woman  heard  this  teaching,  so  pure,  so  com- 
manding, and  the  thought  of  the  Messias  flashed  into 
her  mind.  Not  daring  to  ask  the  question  outright, 
she  said:  "  I  know  that  the  Messias  cometh  who  is 
called  Christ:  therefore,  when  He  is  come,  He  will 
tell  us  all  things."  And  now  a  wonderful  condescen- 
sion: to  this  poor  sinner,  and  not  to  the  orthodox 
Hebrews,  did  Jesus  plainly  avow  His  mission.  With 
all  her  sins  and  errors  she  had  good  will,  while  they 
were  set  upon  their  own  scheme — a  Messias  who 
would  overturn  the  Gentile  world  and  build  a  Jewish 
empire  on  its  ruins.  ' '  Jesus  saith  to  her :  I  am  He 


JESUS  AND  THE  SAMARITAN  WOMAN. 


181 


who    am    speaking  with    thee. 
colloquy   with   the    woman    at 

But  she  im- 
came  His  mes- 
history  of  Jesus 
Church  we  often 
religious  power 
verts,  even  those 
hearts  have  long 
The  Samaritan 
spicuous  exam 
water-pitcher  at 
stinctively  giv- 
her  return,  she 
city  and  eager- 
news:  "The 
left  her  water- 
her  way  into  the 
the  men  there: 
man  who  hath 
things  whatso- 
Is  not  He  the 
went  therefore 
and  came  unto  A  WOMAN  OF  THE 


And   so  ended   His 
the    well. 

mediately  be- 
senger.  In  the 
Christ  and  His 
meet  with  the 
of  women  con- 
whose  wayward 
gone  astray, 
woman  is  a  con- 
pie;  leaving  her 
the  well,  as  if  in- 
ing  a  pledge  of 
runs  into  the 
ly  tells  her 
woman  therefore 
pot  and  went- 
city,  andsaithto 
Come  and  see  a 
told  me  all 
ever  I  have  done. 
Christ  ?  They 
out  of  the  city 
GENTILES.  Him." 


1 82  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER    XII. 

THE    HARVEST    AND    THE    REAPERS. 
John  iv.  35-42. 

HFORE  the  woman's  departure  the  disciples  re- 
turned, and  they  were  not  a  little  surprised 
to  see  Jesus  very  earnestly  conversing  with  a 
woman  about  the  true  worship  of  God  and  the 
coming  of  the  Messias — with  a  Samaritan  wo- 
man too.  Fervent  Jews  in  those  days  rated 
female  intelligence  rather  too  low  for  such 
favors;  yet  the  disciples  dared  not  question 
Him  about  it.  "And  they  wondered  that  He 
talked  with  the  woman.  Yet  no  man  said  : 
What  seekestThou?  or  why  talkest  Thou  with  her?" 
She  was  soon  gone,  and  at  last  our  Saviour's  followers 
interrupted  His  thoughts  about  the  new  kingdom. 
''The  disciples  prayed  Him:  Rabbi,  eat."  Then  He 
told  them  that  He  had  been  eating  and  drinking  of 
His  Father's  banquet.  "I  have  meat  to  eat  which 
you  know  not.  The  disciples  said  therefore  one  to 
another:  Hath  any  man  brought  Him  to  eat?"  He 
then  taught  them  the  lesson  of  how  the  hungry  soul 
forgets  the  hungry  body.  "Jesus  said  to  them:  My 
meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me,  that  I 
may  perfect  His  work."  L,ater  on,  and  as  if  in  confir- 
mation of  His  claim  of  over-occupied  zeal,  a  crowd  of 
Samaritans  were  seen  coming  along  the  road  and 
through  the  fields. 

The  wheat  harvest  could  not  be  far  off  at  this  sea- 
son of  the  year,  and  it  is  possible  that  the  Master, 
seeing  the  men  and  women  coming  along  through  the 
grain,  used  the  sight,  in  His  famiHar  way,  to  illustrate 
His  point — the  quick  returns  of  the  apostolic  ministry, 
as  shown  by  the  sudden  movement  wrought  among 


THE  HARVEST  AND  THE  REAPERS. 


183 


this  half-heathen  people  by  His  conversation  with  the 
woman  at  the  well.  Kven  the  moments  of  leisure  of  a 
zealous  apostle  may  be  turned  to  infinite  account. 
"Lift  up  your  eyes,"  He  exclaimed,  "and  see  the 
countries,  for  they  are  white  already  to  harvest."  He 
spoke  to  them  of  countries,  of  a  world- wide  mission, 
of  kings  and  senates  and  tribes  and  nations  coming  to 
be  garnered  in  His  father's  grana- 
ries, drawn  by  His  disciples'  per- 
suasion. But  how  drawn?  How 


ripened  ?  By  the  Father's  precedent 
persuasion  in  each  one's  heart.  "It 
is  one  man  that  soweth,  and  it  is 
another  that  reapeth.  I  have  sent 
you  to  reap  that  in  which  you  did 
not  labor." 

While  they  had  been  absent  a 
short  while  in  the  city  a  spiritual 
harvest  was  begun  and  ended.  Je- 
sus the  harvester  had  rejoiced  to 
sow  the  good  seed,  to  behold  its 
favorable  reception,  to  accept  the 
homage  of  the  souls  He  had  won. 
As  to  His  disciples,  Jesus  was  in- 
deed to  sow  the  seed  for  them,  but  they  were  to 
co-operate  with  Him  and  rejoice  with  Him  in  the 
reaping.  They  were  immediately  surrounded  by  a 
multitude  of  Samaritans.  These  listened  with  joy  to 
the  teaching  of  the  Master,  who  upon  their  urgent 
prayer  entered  the  city  and  stayed  two  days  with  them, 
so  many  gladly  believing  His  doctrine  that  the  dis- 
ciples could  easily  see  how  the  Gentile  heart  would 
be  open  to  the  Saviour's  message. 

The  profession  of  faith  which  was  publicly  uttered 
by  the  new  converts   was  suggestive  of  two   things : 


THE    HARVEST    AND    THE    REAPERS. 

Do  not  you  say,  there  are  yet  four 
months,  and  the  a  the  harvest  cometh  ? 
Behold,  I  say  to  you,  lift  up  your  eyes,  and 


see  the  countries,  for  they  are  white  already 
to  harvest.  And  he  that  reapeth,  receiveth 
wages,  and  gathereth  fruit  unto  everlasting 
life  ;  that  both  he  that  soweth,  and  he  that 
reapeth,  may  rejoice  together.  For  in  this 
is  the  saying  true  :  that  it  is  one  man  that 
soweth,  and  it  is  another  that  reapeth.  I 
have  sent  you  to  reap  that  in  which  you 
did  not  labor :  others  have  labored,  and 
you  have  entered  into  their  labors.  Now 
of  that  city  many  of  the  Samaritans  be- 
lieved in  him,  for  the  word  of  the  woman 
giving  testimony,  that  he  told  me  whatso- 
ever I  have  done.  So  when  the  Samari- 
tans were  come  to  him,  they  desired  him 
that  he  would  stay  there.  And  he  stayed 
there  two  days.  And  many  more  believed 
in  him  because  of  his  own  word.  And 
they  said  to  the  woman  :  We  now  believe, 
not  for  thy  saying  :  for  we  ourselves  have 
heard  him,  and  know  that  this  is  indeed 
the  Saviour  of  the  world. 


184  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

one,  that  they  had  not  been  hastily  or  unreasonably 
convinced,  for  they  told  the  Samaritan  woman  that  it 
was  not  from  her  testimony  of  Jesus  that  they  believed 
Him,  but  because  they  themselves  had  heard  Him, 
and  doubtless  had  closely  and  fully  questioned  Him. 
The  second  point  they  emphasized  was  that  they 
accepted  Jesus,  not  only  as  a  prophet,  a  teacher,  a 
powerful  rabbi,  but  also  as  a  Saviour.  Always  this 
was  His  purpose  in  His  discourses— the  affirmation  of 
His  soul-saving  office  in  addition  to  that  of  divine 
teacher.* 


CHAPTER   XIII. 


THE  RETURN  TO  GAULEE.  —  THE  HEADING  OF  THE 
RULER'S  SON. 

John  iv,  43-54. 

"Now  after  two  days  He  departed  thence,  and 
went  into  Galilee."  He  did  not,  however,  go  straight 
to  Nazareth  :  '  (  For  Jesus  Himself  gave  testimony  that 
a  prophet  hath  no  honor  in  His  own  country."  He 
knew  that  sooner  or  later  He  must  test  His  own 
city,  but  He  was  reluctant  to  do  so,  having  forebod- 
ings of  the  result.  Among  the  Galileans  generally 
He  was  certain  of  a  welcome.  He  had  already  given 
them  a  taste  of  His  doctrine  and  had  worked  His  first 
miracle  among  them.  Also  the  fame  of  His  adven- 
ture with  the  traders  in  the  Temple  must  have  pre- 
ceded Him.  Courageous  themselves  by  nature,  the 

*It  is  probable  that  the  Samaritans  in  after  years  dated  from 
this  hour  the  final  conversion  of  their  country  to  the  Christian  faith. 
It  was  followed,  unhappily,  in  later  times,  by  successful  impostures  of 
false  prophets.  Under  Vespasian,  Sichem  became  a  Roman  colony,  and 
was  called  Flavia  Neapolis.  St.  Justin,  the  illustrious  philosopher  and 
martyr,  one  of  the  most  powerful  defenders  of  the  early  Christian  faith, 
was  born  there. 


THE  HEALING  OF  THE  RULER'S  SON. 


185 


Galileans  admired  His  boldness,  His  zeal  against  the 
abuses  in  the  holy  places.  They  wanted  to  see  more 
miracles — He  was  at  least  a  prophet,  perhaps  the 
Messias. 

The  moment  He  arrived  in  Cana,  where  He  wrought 
His  first  miracle,  an  officer  of  Herod's  court,  Chusa 
perhaps,  or  Manahen,  the  Tetrarch's  foster-brother, 
prayed  Him  to  come  down  to  Ca- 
pharnaum  to  heal  his  son,  to  snatch 
him  from  the  very  jaws  of  death. 
But  the  faith  of  the  ruler — such  was 
his  office  in  the  synagogue — appear- 
ed to  be  half-hearted.  He  asked 
that  Jesus  should  journey  the  twen- 
ty-five miles  to  his  son's  bedside  to 
work  the  miracle.  The  power  of 
Jesus  was  absolute,  and  must  be  so 
recognized  by  an  enlightened  soul ; 
near  or  far,  he  was  sovereign  lord 
of  sickness  and  health.  The  Jews  of 
Capharnaum  had  an  inordinate  crav- 
ing for  miracles, — it  was  the  chief 
thing  they  wanted  from  Jesus; 
whereas  the  poor  Samaritans,  as 
we  have  seen,  were  glad  and  con- 
tent with  His  high  and  inspiring 
doctrine  and  His  loving  behavior  to- 
wards them.  Jesus  therefore  said  (but,  too  kind  to 
single  out  the  ruler,  He  spoke  to  all  who  were  as- 
sembled) :  "Unless  you  see  signs  and  wonders  you 
believe  not."  The  man's  heart  was  too  sore  to  be 
discouraged.  "  Lord,"  he  said,  "come  d*own  before 
that  my  son  die.  Jesus  saith  to  him :  Go  thy  way, 
thy  son  liveth." 

The  words,  the  manner,  the  glance  of  Jesus,  gained 


"GO   THY   WAY,    THY    SON   LIVETH." 

Then  when  he  was  come  into  Galilee, 
the  Galileans  received  him,  having  seen  all 
the  things  he  had  done  at  Jerusalem  on  the 
festival  day  :  for  they  also  went-to  the  festi- 
val day.  He  came  again  therefore  into 
Cana  of  Galilee,  where  he  made  the  water 
wine.  And  there  was  a  certain  ruler 
whose  son  was  sick  at  Capharnaum.  He 
having  heard  that  Jesus  was  come  from 
Judea  into  Galilee,  went  to  him,  and 
prayed  him  to  come  down  and  heal  his 
son  :  for  he  was  at  the  point  of  death. 
Jesus  therefore  said  to  him :  Unless  you 
see  signs  and  wonders  you  believe  not.  The 
ruler  saith  to  Him  :  Lord,  comedown  before 
that  my  son  die.  Jesus  saith  to  him :  Go 
thy  way,  thy  son  liveth.  The  man  believed 
the  word  which  Jesus  said  to  him,  and  went 
his  way.  And  as  he  was  going  down,  his  ser- 
vants met  him,  and  they  brought  him  word 
that  his  son  lived.  He  asked  therefore  of 
them  the  hour  wherein  he  grew  better,  and 
they  said  to  him  :  Yesterday  at  the  seventh 
hour  the  fever  left  him.  The  father  there- 
fore knew  that  it  was  at  the  same  hour  that 
Jesus  said  to  him  :  Thy  son  liveth  ;  and 
himself  believed,  and  his  whole  house. 
This  is  again  the  second  miracle  that  Jesus 
did  when  he  was  come  out  of  Judea  into 
Galilee. 


1 86 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


the  heart  of  the  ruler;  he  firmly  believed  the  cure 
had  been  wrought,  and  on  his  way  home  he  met  his 
servants  hurrying  to  tell  him  that  his  son  had  been 
suddenly  and  perfectly  restored.  At  what  hour?  The 
very  same  at  which  Jesus  had  spoken  the  word. 
Deeper  still  grew  the  ruler's  faith,  and  his  whole  house- 
hold joined  him  in  adhesion  to  Jesus. 

By  this  second  miracle  in  the  city  of  Cana  began 
the  religion  of  Christ  to  grow  and  spread  in  the  land 
of  Galilee.  This  was  a  great  joy  for  Jesus.  I^ater  on 
we  shall  find  Chusa's  wife  among  the  faithfulwomen 
who  followed  Him  and  ministered  to  Him  and  His 
Apostles ;  the  mother  of  the  boy  who  was  miracu- 
lously healed  gladly  paid  her  gratitude  to  the  great 
Being  who  had  comforted  her  stricken  heart. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

AT    NAZARETH. 
Luke  iv.  14-30. 

VERY  fiftieth  year  was  set  apart  by  the 
L,aw  of  Moses  as  one  of  special  joy  to  Israel, 
and  called  the  Year  of  Jubilee.  The  time 
spent  by  Jesus  in  Galilee  was  His  time  of 
Jubilee.  Though  not  without  its  storms,  it 
was  a  happy,  busy,  and  successful  season  of 
preaching  to  a  simple-hearted  people.  His 
miracles  were  incessant  and  were  taken, 
generally,  as  He  intended — Heaven's  au- 
thentication .of  the  Teacher's  doctrine.  The 
Glad  Tidings  took  hold  of  men's  hearts  and  triumphed 
in  their  minds.  "And  the  fame  of  Him  went  out 
through  the  whole  country.  And  He  taught  in  their 
synagogues  and  was  magnified  by  all."  To  discerning 


AT  NAZARETH.  187 

Spirits  His  doctrine  was  more  marvellous  (as  it  has 
been  in  all  succeeding  generations)  than  His  mira- 
cles ;  they  greedily  listened  to  it. 

The  synagogues  at  first,  and  afterwards,  when  the 
crowds  were  too  vast  for  any  building,  the  open  fields 
were  His  places  of  meeting.  On  each  Sabbath  it  was 
customary  for  the  formal  assembly  of  the  people  to  be 
regularly  held  in  the  synagogues  and  addressed  by 
the  rabbis,  and  two  or  three  other  meetings  each 
week  for  special  prayers  and  Scripture  lessons — too 
often  over-done  with  casuistical  interpretations.  On 
all,  or  nearly  all  these  occasions,  Jesus  was  gladly 
heard  ;  He  was  hailed  as  a  wonder-worker,  and  in  the 
minds  of  vast  numbers  already  acknowledged  as  the 
Messias  ;  to  all  He  was  a  preacher  of  unheard-of  power. 

But  what  of  His  old  home  at  Nazareth  ?  So  far 
Jesus  had  managed  to  avoid  His  fellow-townsmen. 
Indifferent  to  Him,  even  ready  to  scorn  Him,  He 
knew  them  to  be ;  yet  He  could  not  longer  refuse  to 
preach  to  them.  He  went  to  His  old  home,  entered 
the  synagogue  on  a  Sabbath  day,  "  according  to  His 
ciistom,"  as  if  He  were  still  only  the  obscure  work- 
man they  had  ever  known  Him.  He  did  not  sit  in 
the  honorable  place  of  the  rabbis,  but  in  the  body 
of  the  congregation.  The  ruler  of  the  synagogue  sat 
with  the  elders  in  a  sort  of  chancel ;  but  it  was  not 
customary  to  give  to  these  officials  the  entire  conduct 
of  the  public  services  of  religion,  for  any  instructed 
and  competent  Hebrew  might  speak  to  the  assemblage. 
Jesus,  thus  placed  amid  the  crowd  of  ordinary  worship- 
pers, arose  and  asked  for  the  book  of  the  prophets. 
Of  course  they  had  all  heard  much  of  His  career  since 
He  had  left  them,  but  they  could  not  realize  that 
He  was  what  men  said  He  was — a  great  teacher  in 
Israel.  Where  had  He  studied?  In  His  father's 


IPS 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


THE  BOCK  OF  THE  PROPHETS. 


carpenter  shop  ?  No  Nazarene  as  yet  had 
heard  Him  discourse  in  public.  They 
thought  rumor  had  exaggerated  His  power. 
He  had  never  so  much  as  addressed  His 
fellow-  townsmen  in  the  synagogue  or  read 
the  Scriptures  there,  much  less  presumed 
to  deliver  a  discourse.  But  the  ruler  of  the 
synagogue  beckoned  Him  forward,  and  as 
He  advanced  an  assistant  handed  Him  the 
cylinder  round  which  was  wrapped  the 
scroll,  and  He  who  was  yet  only  the  young 
carpenter  to  all  that  congregation  stepped 
into  the  reading-desk  or  pulpit,  unwound 
the  scro11'  and  ^gun  to  read.  It  was  the 
prophecy  of  Isaias,  and,  whether  in  the  or- 
dinary course  or  by  a  special  providence,  the  pas- 
sage was  as  follows  :  '  '  The  spirit  of  the  Lord  is 
upon  me,  wherefore  He  hath  anointed  me  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  the  poor  ;  He  hath  sent  me  to  heal 
the  contrite  of  heart,  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  cap- 
tives, and  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them 
that  are  bruised,  to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of 
the  Lord,  and  the  day  of  reward."  Here  He  stopped, 
wound  the  scroll  again  on  the  cylinder,  returned  it  to 
the  assistant,  and  sat  down,  thereby  expressing  His 
purpose  to  discourse  upon  the  passage  He  had  read. 
A  deep  silence  of  expectation  fell  upon  the  congre- 
gation. What  would  He  say? 

"This  day,"  He  began  with  equal  dignity  and 
earnestness,  "is  fulfilled  this  scripture  in  your  ears." 
And  then  with  voice  and  word  of  gentle  persuasion 
He  explained  His  meaning  —  He  was  sent  by  God  to  save 
them.  It  was  they  who  were  meant  by  the  prophet  — 
they,  His  old  friends  and  acquaintances,  conscious 
as  they  must  be  of  sin  and  temptation  ;  and  He 


A  T  NAZARETH.  1 89 

was  appointed  by  God  to  heal  their 
spiritual  wounds  and  to  ransom 
them  from  spiritual  slavery  ;  them, 
His  first  and  best-loved  friends. 
To  them  He  would  impart  the  earli- 
est gifts  o£  God  in  this  His  accept- 
able time,  the  spiritual  and  prophetic 
year  of  Jubilee.  Not  only  they  and 
the  race  of  Israel,  but  all  humanity, 
were  to  be  freed  and  made  godlike 
in  liberty,  and  man  was  to  be  re- 
stored to  his  primitive  dignity,  in- 
nocence, and  happiness.  For  a 
moment  Jesus  seemed  to  have  won, 
— a  whisper  of  approbation  was 
heard.  "They  wondered  at  the 
words  of  grace  that  proceeded  out 
of  His  mouth." 

But  pride  is  not  easily  dethron- 
ed. Some  one  sneered,  "Is  not 
this  the  son  of  Joseph  ?  ' '  Other 
sarcastic  words  followed,  and  Jesus 
read  in  the  hearts  of  His  hearers  the 
spite  and  incredulity  which  were 
lurking  there  ;  it  was  too  much  for 
them  to  acknowledge  His  mission : 
an  obscure  young  mechanic,  with- 
out training  or  position,  to  announce 
Himself  as  the  great  messenger  of 
heaven  !  And  many  thought  within  themselves,  Why 
did  He  not  favor  His  own  townsmen  with  miracles  ? 
Did  He  work  real  ones  ?  They  must  be  false  wonders, 
tricks  and  deceits.  Why  not  prove  His  mission  by 
making  Himself  king  ?  Jesus  answered  their  thoughts 
and  their  murmurs:  "Doubtless  you  will  say  to  Me 


THE   PROPHET    IN   HIS   OWN   COUNTRY. 

And  he  came  to  Nazareth  where  he  was 
brought  up  :  and  he  went  into  the  syna- 
gogue according  to  his  custom  on  the  Sab- 
bath day ;  and  he  rose  up  to  read.  And 
the  book  of  Isaias  the  prophet  was  de- 
livered unto  him.  And  as  he  unfolded  the 
book,  he  found  the  place  where  it  was 
written  :  The  spirit  of  the  Lordis  upon  me, 
wherefore  he  hath  anointed  me  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  the  poor  he  hath  sent  me  to 
heal  the  contrite  of  heart,  to  preach  de- 
liverance to  the  captives,  and  sight  to  the 
blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are 
bruised,  to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of  the 
Lord,  and  the  day  of  reward.  And  when 
he  had  folded  the  book,  he  restored  it  to 
the  minister,  and  sat  down.  And  the  eyes 
of  all  in  the  synagogue  were  fixed  on  him. 
And  he  began  to  say  to  them  :  This  day  is 
fulfilled  this  scripture  in  your  ears.  And 
all  gave  testimony  to  him  ;  and  they  won- 
dered at  the  words  of  grace  that  proceeded 
from  his  mouth,  and  they  said  :  Is  not  this 
the  son  of  Joseph  ?  And  he  said  to  them  : 
Doubtless  you  will  say  to  me  this  simili- 
tude :  Physician,  heal  thyself :  as  great 
things  as  we  have  heard  done  in  Caphar- 
naum,  do  also  here  in  thy  own  country. 
And  he  said  :  Amen  I  say  to  you,  that  no 
prophet  is  accepted  in  his  own  country.  In 
truth  I  say  to  you,  there  were  many  widows 
in  the  days  of  Elias  in  Israel,  when  heaven 
was  shut  up  three  years  and  six  months, 
when  there  was  a  great  famine  throughout 
all  the  earth.  And  to  none  of  them  was 
Elias  sent,  but  to  Sarepta  of  Sidon,  to  a 
widow  woman.  And  there  were  many  lepers 
in  Israel  in  the  time  of  Eliseus  the  pro- 
phet ;  and  none  of  them  was  cleansed  but 
Naaman  the  Syrian.  And  all  they  in  the 
synagogue,  hearing  these  things,  were  filled 
with  anger.  And  they  rose  up  and  thrust 
him  out  of  the  city  :  and  they  brought  him 
to  the  brow  of  the  hill,  whereon  their  city 
was  built,  that  they  might  cast  him  down 
headlong.  But  he  passing  through  the 
midst  of  them,  went  his  way. 


190 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


"  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is 
upon  me." 


this  proverb,  Physician,  heal  thyself;  as 
great  things  as  we  have  heard  done  in 
Capharnaum,  do  also  here  in  Thy  own 
country.  And  He  said,  No  prophet  is 
accepted  in  His  own  country." 

And  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  the  famil- 
iars of  a  great  man's  childhood  and  youth 
who  find  it  hardest  to  appreciate  him  in 
the  day  of  his  greatness.  It  was  so  with 
Jesus.  But  He  went  on  and  He  taught 
them  God's  ways  of  sending  miracles. 
He  distributes  His  gifts  to  whom  He 
pleases  and  prefers  only  those  who  by 
humility  and  faith  are  most  worthy. 

At  last  He  stood  up,  and  as  He  left 
the  synagogue  He  said :  "In  truth  I  say 
to  you,  many  widows  were  in  Israel  in 
the  days  of  Klias  when  heaven  was  shut 
up  three  years  and  six  months,  and  there 
was  a  great  famine  throughout  all  the 
earth,  and  to  none  of  them  was  Elias  sent  but  to 
Sarepta  of  Sidon,  a  woman  that  was  a  widow.  And 
there  were  many  lepers  in  Israel  in  the  time  of  EHseus 
the  prophet,  and  none  of  them  was  cleansed  save 
Naaman  the  Syrian." 

Now  rose  the  suspicions  and  the  scorn  of  the 
Nazarenes  into  a  storm  of  wrath.  Jesus  barely  es- 
caped from  the  building.  They  drove  Him  through 
the  streets  and  up  the  hill  on  whose  slope  the  town 
was  built :  He  had  truly  read  their  evil  hearts.  They 
forced  Him  to  the  brow  of  the  hill  to  cast  Him 
down  headlong.  They  were  on  the  point  of  murder- 
ing Him  when  Jesus  stopped,  and  turning,  He  faced 
His  enemies.  It  is  well  known  that  certain  men  can 
by  a  mere  look  or  a  simple  word  subdue  a  raging 


CAPHARNA  UM.  191 

beast  and  bring  him  whining  to  their  feet.  This 
power  Jesus  had,  as  we  shall  often  see,  over  beastly 
men.  He  used  it  on  this  occasion,  a  prerogative  of 
superior  humanity  made  entirely  invincible  by  union 
with  the  sovereign  Godhead  itself.  The  Nazarenes 
were  suddenly  halted  by  His  majestic  glance.  His 
stern  looks  stiffened  their  sacrilegious  arms  and 
silenced  their  tongues.  They  had  clamored  for  a 
miracle,  and  this  was  His  answer.  He  forced  them 
to  open  a  way  for  Him,  and  passed  out  between 
their  pallid  faces  and  rigid  forms,  offering  the  kind 
of  a  miracle  they  did  not  want  but  were  unable  to 
refuse.  Thus  was  Jesus  driven  from  the  home  of  His 
childhood. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

CAPHARNAUM. — "l      WIU,     MARK      YOU      FISHERS      OF 

MEN." 

Matt,  iv.  13—16;  Mark  iv.  17—28;  Luke  31— 38. 

"AND  leaving  the  city  Nazareth,  He  came  and 
dwelt  in  Capharnaum  on  the  sea-coast,  in  the  borders 
of  Zabulon  and  Nephthalim,  that  it  might  be  ful- 
filled which  was  said  by  Isaias  the  prophet :  Land 
of  Zabulon  and  land  of  Nephthalim, 
the  way  of  the  sea  beyond  the  Jordan, 
Galilee  of  the  Gentiles  :  The  people 
that  sat  in  darkness,  hath  seen  great 
light ;  and  to  them  that  sat  in  the 
region  of  the  shadow  of  death,  light 
is  sprung  up"  Jesus  thus  makes 
what  might  be  called  His  home  at 
Capharnaum  ;  but  this  does  not 
mean  that  He  remained  there  for 


his  hired  men,  and  they  followed  him. 

any    length    of   time.      Moved    by 


JESUS   PUBLICLY   CALLS   HIS   APOSTLES. 

And  Jesus  walking  by  the  sea  of  Galilee, 
saw  two  brethren,  Simon  who  is  called 
Peter,  and  Andrew  his  brother,  casting  a 
net  into  the  sea  (for  they  were  fishers). 
And  he  saith  to  them  :  Come  ye  after  me, 
and  I  will  make  you  to  be  fishers  of  men. 
And  they  immediately  leaving  their  nets, 
followed  him.  And  going  on  from  thence, 
he  saw  other  two  brethren,  James  the  son 
of  Zebedee,  and  John  his  brother,  in  a  ship 
with  Zebedee  their  father,  mending  their 
nets  :  and  he  called  them.  And  they  forth- 
with left  their  nets  and  their  father  with 


I92 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


high  courage,  devouring  zeal,  intolerant  of  interrup- 
tion, His  journeyings  were  incessant  from  now  until 
His  death.  Not  only  in  the  synagogues  but  every- 
where does  He  gather  His  audiences  :  in  the  pub- 
lic streets  of  towns  and  in  private  houses,  at  the 
foot  of  a  mountain,  from  a  boat  anchored  near 
the  level  shore.  His  discourses  are  generally  brief, 
full  of  short  maxims,  striking  home  to  the  simplest 
hearts,  abounding  in  narratives  and  illustrations  from 

daily  life.  He  says  just 
enough  to  give  the  Holy 
Spirit  abundant  material  to 
move  men  in  holy  thoughts 
to  prepare  for  a  thorough 
newness  of  life.  Especially 
He  speaks  of  the  ' '  Kingdom 
of  God ' '  and  of  repentance. 
1  *  From  that  time  Jesus  be- 
gan to  preach  the  Gospel  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  say- 
ing :  The  time  is  accomplish- 
RUINS  OF  A  JEWISH  SYNAGOGUE  BETWEEN  NAZARETH  cd  and  the  Kingdom  of  God 
AND  CAPHARNAUM.  is  a^  hand  ;  repent  and  be- 

lieve the  Gospel.  Do  penance,  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  at  hand."  He  stays  but  a  moment  in  any 
place,  He  makes  no  long  discourses.  He  utters  a  few 
brief  sayings,  striking  and  novel,  and  moves  onward, 
leaving  men  to  their  own  thoughts. 

The  people  follow  Him  eagerly ;  they  must  hear 
more.  Who  could  listen  to  Him,  a  teacher  so  kind- 
ly, so  majestic,  so  beautiful,  so  stirring  in  His  elo- 
quence, and  not  want  to  listen  to  Him  for  ever? 
The  whole  country  round  was  soon  awakened  to  the 
deepest  religious  emotion.  He  preaches  repentance, 
and  He  announces  a  Kingdom — He  is  both  a  teacher 


CAPHARNAUM.  193 

and  a  founder.  Faith  in  His  doctrine,  in  His  rules 
of  conduct,  is  inseparably  associated  with  outward 
membership  in  a  visible  society.  He  teaches  a  re- 
ligion and  He  organizes  a  Church.  Simon  Peter 
and  Andrew  his  brother  had  been  called  privately 
on  a  previous  occasion.  But  they  still  occasionally 
worked  at  their  secular  calling  of  fishermen.  Jesus 
now  publicly  sets  them  apart  and  makes  Himself 
their  only  trade,  and  His  Gospel  their  sole  occupa- 
tion. "Come  ye  after  Me,"  He  says,  "  and  I  will 
make  you  to  be  fishers  of  men."  He  does  the  same 
with  the  two  sons  of  Zebedee.  They  may  have 
thought  what  they  pleased  about  their  previous  voca- 
tion ;  this  one  is  definite  and  clear ;  they  are  selected 
as  officials  in  His  new  kingdom,  to  be  with  Him  in 
special  love,  in  strict  obedience,  and  for  ever. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

VANQUISHING  AN  UNCLEAN  SPIRIT. — HEALING  SIMON'S 

WIFE'S  MOTHER. — ALL  GALILEE  is  EVANGELIZED. 

Matt.  viii.  14-17,  and  iv.   23—25;  Mark  i.  21—39; 

Luke  iv.  31-44. 

CAPHARNAUM  is  one  of  the  most  important  local- 
ities in  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ.  There,  as  we  have 
seen,  He  fixed  His  abode,  or  rather  the  centre  of  His 
activity.  There  He  found  keen  and  observant  audi- 
tors from  the  heart  of  Asia,  from  Egypt  and  the 
West,  travelling  parties  on  the  stream  of  commerce 
which  flowed  through  the  city's  streets — a  centre  of 
trade  for  Jews  and  pagans.  The  strong  wings  of 
commerce  were  then  freighted  with  the  Glad  Tidings, 
and  doubtless  in  after  years  many  yielded  a  quicker 
allegiance  to  the  Saviour,  when  preached  in  their 


194 


LIFE  Of  JESUS  CHRIST. 


homes  by  the  Apostles,  because  they  had  heard  Him 
personally  and  seen  His  miracles  in  Capharnaum. 

From   this  point  Jesus   could   move  easily   in   any 
direction  in  northern  Palestine,  sending  His  disciples 
eastward    across    the   lake    into  the    Perea,    or   west- 
ward through  Galilee.     The  homes  of  Peter  and   the 
other  disciples  gave  Him  refuge  and  hospitality  amid 
loving  friends.     Thus   Capharnaum  became  His  city, 
His  home,  as  far  as  He  can  be  said  to  have  had  one. 
Nothing  remains  of  this  once  busy  mart,  in  whose 
streets     the     Saviour    of    the     world     mingled    with 
merchants  and  soldiers  and  idlers,  and  preached  pen- 
ance  and   the   Kingdom   of   God  ;     nor  are   we   quite 
sure   of  its   exact   location.     The    malediction    which 
later   on    He    pronounced    (Matt.    xi.    23)  against    it 
for  its  final  indifference  to   His  call  was  fulfilled  to 
the  letter,  and  Tel-Hum,    a  scattering  of  melancholy 
ruins,    is  all  that  remains.     But   in  our   Lord's   time 
it  was  a  beautiful  place,  so  situated  as  to  command 
a    charming    view   down   the    lake,    taking    in    both 
banks,  whose  verdant  slopes  enclosed  in  emerald  set- 
ting the  clear  waters,  reflecting  the  white  cottages  of 
many  villages  and  the  sails  of  many  graceful  vessels. 
Never  was    scene   more  tranquil   than   that 
chosen  by  our  Saviour  as  the  principal  spot 
in  which  to  speak  to  men  of  His  meek  and 
peaceful  Gospel.     The  town  was   an  indus- 
trial as  well  as  a  commercial   centre,  many 
I  ruins   of  mills   and   tanneries   and  potteries 
upon   its  site  and   in  its  immediate  vicinity 
showing  where  those    honest  workmen  who 
were  the  usual  audience  of  the  Messias  earn- 
ed their  living.     He  sat  among  them,  or  He 
stood  above   them  upon   a  wall  or  the   ruin 
AN  ANCIENT  POTTERY.         of  a  well,  and  told  these  toilers  about  the 


EARLY  METHODS  OF  FARMING. 


CAPHARNA  UM.  195 

love    of   the    Heavenly    Father    for 
them,  of  the  divine  equality  of  men 
before  God,  who  made  all  men,  rich 
and  poor,  learned  and  simple,  Jews  ^ 
and  Gentiles  and   Samaritans^  alike 
in  His  image,  called  them  all  to  the 
same    immortal    destiny,    and    gave? 
His  divine    Son  to  all  to  lead  them 
on  to  Paradise. 

' '  And  they  entered  into  Caphar- 
naum,  a  city  of  Galilee,  and  forth- 
with upon  the  Sabbath-days,  going 
into  the  synagogue,  He  taught  them."  A  Roman 
centurion,  perhaps  a  proselyte,  an  officer  of  the 
garrison,  had  built  a  synagogue,  out  of  love  for  the 
people  and  their  religion,  and  this  was  doubtless 
the  chief  one  of  the  several  the  town  contained.  Per- 
haps the  prostrate  columns  of  beautifully  carved 
marble  found  at  Tel-Hum  to-day  are  the  ruins  of 
the  edifice  which  so  often  resounded  with  the  tones 
of  our  Saviour's  voice.  When  the  Master  first  ap- 
peared a  crowded  assembly  awaited  Him.  St.  Mark 
tells  us  the  first  impression :  ' '  And  they  were  as- 
tonished at  His  doctrine,  for  He  was  teaching  them 
as  one  having  power,  and  not  as  the  Scribes." 

He  handled  living  questions  of  practical  impor- 
tance and  He  astonished  men  with  His  clearness ;  es- 
pecially His  address  breathed  authority  in  every  word. 
The  rabbis  appealed  to  the  interpretations  of  the 
writers  of  their  class,  and  Jesus  appealed  to  the  Holy 
Scriptures  and  to  good  common  sense ;  He  always 
awoke  the  voice  of  conscience.  Their  angry  disputes 
concerned  minute  external  observances  over  which 
they  wrangled  for  ever,  yet  never  came  to  a  con- 
clusion ;  Jesus  treated  of  the  great  problems  of  time 


196 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


and  eternity  and  fully  settled  every  question  in  a 
brief  discourse.  He  was  the  people's  ideal  preacher 
and  He  won  their  allegiance. 

While  all  were  absorbed  in  listening  to  Jesus  an 
unexpected  disturbance  occurred.  A  demoniac,  an 
unhappy  man  possessed  by  a  devil  of  uncleanness, 
had  got  into  the  synagogue  unnoticed.  The  words 
of  the  divine  Teacher  tormented  the  evil  one  within 
him  like  whips  of  fire.  At  length  he  burst  out 
with  a  furious  and  resounding  voice  :  ' '  Let  us  alone  ; 
what  have  we  to  do  with  Thee,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ? 
Art  Thou  come  to  destroy  us  ?  I 
know  Thee,  who  Thou  art,  the 
Holy  One  of  God."  The  harsh 
tones,  the  writhing  form  and  furious 
gestures  of  the  demoniac,  were  in 
shocking  contrast  with  the  gentle 
Saviour.  The  people  were  fright- 
ened and  amazed,  awaiting  some 
catastrophe.  But  Jesus  knew  that 
voice,  and  in  words  of  scorn  He 
"  rebuked  him,  saying:  Hold  thy 
peace,  and  go  out  of  him."  Instant- 
ly the  unclean  spirit  flung  his  vic- 
tim into  the  crowd,  shouting  and  tearing  him,  and  then 
vanished,  leaving  him  there  without  serious  injuries. 

The  astonished  people  began  to  ask  who  this 
triumphant  Being  was.  He  had  already  healed  the 
sick  by  a  mere  word,  and  now  He  masters  the  terrible 
demons  in  like  manner.  A  great  fear  fell  upon  all 
who  were  present.  "What  thing  is  this?"  they 
questioned  one  another  ;  ' '  what  is  this  new  doctrine  ? 
For  with  authority  He  commandeth  even  the  unclean 
spirits,  and  they  obey  Him."  Nothing  could  have 
served  our  Saviour's  mission  better  than  this  event, 


"LET  us  ALONE!" 

And  in  the  synagogue  there  was  a  man 
jvho  had  an  unclean  devil,  and  he  cried  out 
vith  a  loud  voice,  saying  :  Let  us  alone  ; 
vhat  have  we  to  do  with  thee,  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  ?  art  thou  come  to  destroy  us  ? 
'.  know  thee  who  thou  art,  the  Holy  One  of 
jod  And  Jesus  rebuked  him,  saying  : 
rlold  thy  peace,  and  go  out  of  him.  And 
vhen  the  devil  had  thrown  him  into  the 
nidst,  tearing  him,  and  crying  with  a  loud 
roice,  he  went  out  of  him,  and  hurt  him 
lot  at  all.  And  they  were  all  amazed  and 
here  came  fear  upon  all,  insomuch  that 
hey  questioned  among  themselves,  saying  : 
A'hat  thing  is  this  ?  what  ts  this  new  doc- 
rine  ?  for  with  power  he  commandeth  even 
he  unclean  spirits,  and  they  obey  him. 
Vnd  the  fame  of  him  was  spread  forth- 
with into  all  the  country  of  Galilee. 


VANQUISHING  AN  UNCLEAN  SPIRIT. 

soon  a  topic  of 
common  conversa- 
tion. At  this  era 
the  Jewish  people, 
as  Josephus  re- 
lates, were  fre- 
quently subjected 
to  persecutions  of 
the  devil  in  visible 
form,  possessions, 
obsessions,  and  the 
like.  These,  occur- 
ring with  alarming 
frequency,  and  all 
over  the  country, 
as  we  shall  see  in 
the  course  of  the 
Saviour' s  j  ourney  s, 
were  a  punishment 
for  the  unbelief 
of  the  Sadducees, 
who  denied  the 
existence  of  spirits 
and  of  immortal  life. 


197 


With  power  He  commandeth  even  the  unclean  spirits,  and 
they  obey  Him." 


Some  of  the  Jews  thought  that 
these  evil  spirits  were  the  souls  of  lost  men  torment- 
ing the  living.  The  better  informed  knew  that  they 
were  devils,  and  that  God  allowed  them  to  afflict  the 
souls  and  bodies  of  men  for  their  punishment  or 
purification.  Ordinary  temptation  by  an  evil  spirit, 
foul  imaginations,  suggestions,  enticements  which 
draw  the  will  to  wickedness,  and  do  this  more  power- 
fully than  evil  companionship  of  men — all  this  is  some- 
thing easily  comprehended.  Beyond  this  there  are  still 
more  powerful  influences,  placing  the  victim  under  a 
spell  of  diabolical  influence  so  strong  as  to  render 


198 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


him  helpless.  In  the  state  called  diabolical  posses- 
sion the  demon  is  like  the  pilot  of  a  ship — he  is 
master  of  the  captain  and  the  crew.  He  uses  the 
body  and  the  entire  outward  activity  of  his  victim 
as  if  they  were  his  own,  although  he  is  not  able  to 
master  the  will  otherwise  than  by  placing  it  in  a 
state  of  insensibility  or  lunacy.  He  is  to  the  soul 
what  a  clot  of  blood  in  the  brain  is  to  the  sensible 
man — insanity  or  the  coma  of  apoplexy  :  and  then  he 
himself  acts  instead  of  the  human  will  and  under- 
standing. The  man  possessed  is  thus  like  a  devil 
in  human  shape.  Furthermore,  the  evil  one  general- 
ly affects  the  bodily  state  of  his  victim,  causing 
various  sorts  of  fits,  deafness  or  loss  of  speech,  or 
self-lacerations.  Hence  in  the  Gos- 
pel we  read  of  demoniacs  being 
cured.  It  must  also  be  borne  in 
mind  that  a  demoniac  is  not  always 
responsible — the  demon  does  not 
possess  the  impossible  power  of  com- 
pelling sin.  Yet  we  must  believe 
that  God  would  rarely  allow  any 
person  to  be  thus  afflicted  unless 
he  had  already  voluntarily  subjected 
himself  by  his  vices  to  the  enemy's 
yoke.  Jesus,  who  had  come  to  de- 
liver men  from  all  slavery  of  sin, 
gladly  delivered  demoniacs  from 
their  horrible  torment,  nor  is  any 
miracle  oftener  repeated  than  that  which  is  first  record- 
ed as  occurring  in  the  synagogue  of  Capharnaum. 

When  Jesus  passed  out  of  the  synagogue  He 
was  in  such  honor  that  He  might  have  taken  His 
midday  meal  with  some  distinguished  family,  but 
He  was  true  to  His  first  though  humblest  friends. 


PETER'S  WIFE'S  MOTHER  is  CURED. 
And  immediately  going  out  of  the  syna- 
gogue, they  came  into  the  house  of  Simon 
and  Andrew,  with  James  and  John.  And 
Simon's  wife's  mother  lay  in  a  fit  of  a 
fever  :  and  forthwith  they  tell  him  of  her. 
And  coming  to  her  he  lifted  her  up, 
taking  her  by  the  hand  :  and  standing  over 
her  he  commanded  the  fever,  and  im- 
mediately the  fever  left  her,  and  she  min- 
istered unto  them.  And  when  it  was  even- 
ing after  sunset,  they  brought  to  him  all 
that  were  ill  and  that  were  possessed  with 
devils.  And  all  the  city  was  gathered  to- 
gether at  the  door.  And  he  healed  many 
that  were  troubled  with  divers  diseases  ; 
that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken 
by  Isaias  the  prophet,  saying  :  He  took  our 
infirmities  and  bore  our  diseases.  And 
devils  went  out  of  many,  crying  out,  and 
saying  :  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God.  And 
rebuking  them,  he  suffered  them  not  to 
speak,  for  they  knew  that  he  was  Christ. 


HEALING  SIMON'S  WIFE'S  MOTHER.  199 

He  went  home  with  Simon-Peter.  He  found,  no 
doubt,  a  hearty  welcome,  but  also  a  saddened  house- 
hold, for  Simon's  wife's  mother  lay  ill  of  a  fever, 
perhaps  caused  by  the  malaria  mentioned  by  Josephus 
as  arising  from  the  swamps  to  the  north  of  the  L,ake 
of  Genesareth.  Simon  and  others  must  have  begged 
their  holy  Guest  to  relieve  the  sick  woman,  nor 
would  Jesus  refuse  to  His  near  friends  a  favor  freely 
granted  to  strangers.  He  took  her  by  the  hand, 
standing  over  her,  looking  upon  her,  instilling  into 
her  soul  that  loving  confidence  in  His  power  which 
would  merit  the  favor  her  friends  had  prayed  for : 
"He  commanded  the  fever;  and  immediately  the 
fever  left  her,  and  she  arose  and  ministered  unto 
them."  And  thus  in  unrestrained  enjoyment  of  the 
Saviour's  gentle  company  and  conversation  some 
happy  hours  were  spent.  But  the  entire  town  and 
its  neighborhood  waited  impatiently  the  setting  of 
the  sun  and  the  end  of  the  Sabbath  stillness,  that 
they  might  hurry  to  Him  with  all  their  sick  friends, 
including  a  large  number  of  demoniacs.  He  healed 
them  all.  He  drove  out  the  devils,  commanding 
them  to  cease  their  cry,  "Thou  art  the  Son  of 
God  !  "  lest  they  should  precipitate  an  uncontrol- 
lable religious  agitation. 

Far  into    the    night    He   healed   diseases  and   ex- 
pelled    demons    and     spoke     many 
words  of  heavenly  healing  for  men's 
souls,  and  then  retired  to  sleep  : 
but  at  dawn  of  day,  when  they 
sought    Him    again,    He    had 
secretly   departed.      It   was   as 
if   He     wished     to     give     the 
people  of  Capharnaum  time  to 


"  And  they  brought  to  Him  all  that  were  ilLw 


200  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

To  applaud  His  miracles,  to  say  "  He  is  a 
great  rabbi,"  this  was  good  enough  to  begin  with; 
but  it  would  take  time  and  thought  and  prayer  and 
counsel  to  accept  Him  heartily  as  the  Messias. 
Therefore,  "rising  very  early,  going  out  He  went 
into  a  desert  place,  and  there  He  prayed."  His 
mission  demanded  solitude ;  He  must  pray  as  well 
as  preach  and  work  miracles.  To  the  people  He 
willingly  gave  the  day-time ;  they  could  not  refuse 
Him  the  night  hours  for  prayer.  But  a  whole  multi- 
tude went  after  Him,  Simon  in  the  lead.  ((  And 
Simon  and  they  that  were  with  him  followed  after 
Him,  and  when  they  found  Him  they  said  to  Him  : 
All  seek  for  Thee.  And  the  multitudes  besought 
Him  and  they  stayed  Him,  that  He  would  not  de- 
part from  them."  Then  He  began  a  kind  of  mission- 
ary invasion  of  the  land,  leading  great  numbers 
about  through  the  country  and  holding  vast  meet- 
ings in  the  open  air,  and  more  select  assemblages 
in  the  synagogues.  "And  He  saith  to  them:  I,et 
us  go  into  the  neighboring  towns  and  cities,  that 
I  may  preach  there  also  the  Kingdom  of  God,  for 
to  this  purpose  am  I  come.  And  Jesus  went  about 
all  Galilee,  teaching  in  their  synagogues,  and  preach- 
ing the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom,  and  healing  all  man- 
ner of  sickness  and  every  infirmity  among  the  peo- 
ple." So  it  was  that  He  performed  His  work, 
spending  the  early  hours  of  morning  in  some  lonely 
spot  absorbed  in  prayer,  lovingly  communing  alone 
with  the  Father.  From  this  He  would  be  drawn  by 
the  Apostles,  and  often  by  a  great  throng  of  men 
and  women.  The  busy  hours  passed  quickly  away 
in  speaking  to  His  well-loved  people  about  God's 
way  of  salvation,  sometimes  forced  to  discuss  a 
miserable  scruple  with  the  Pharisees,  stopping  to  eat 


ALL  GALILEE  t*>  EVANGELIZED.  t  X>I 

a  frugal  meal  with  His  followers,  ministered  to  by 
the  devout  sisterhood  which  never  left  Him ;  again 
teaching  and  journeying,  always  working  astound- 
ing miracles,  until  long  after  dark  He  managed  again 
to  get  a  few  hours  of  very  necessary  sleep. 

No  wonder  that  St.  Matthew  relates:  "And  His 
fame  went  throughout  all  Syria,  and  they  presented 
to  Him  all  .sick  people  that  were  taken  with  divers 
diseases  and  torments,  and  such  as  were  possessed 
by  devils ;  and  -lunatics,  and  those  that  had  the  palsy, 
and  He  healed  them.  And  much  people  followed 
Him  from  Galilee,  and  from  Decapolis,  and  from  Jeru- 
salem, and  from  Judea,  and  from  beyond  the  Jordan." 

At  this  time  Galilee  was  a  populous  province, 
with  over  two  hundred  cities  and  towns,  a  vast 
field  for  our  Saviour's  zeal.  His  first  excursions 
were  through  the  northern  part  of  the  province,  be- 
ginning with  Bethsaida,  a  town  lying  to  the  north- 
east of  Capharnaum,  and  the  native  place  of  Philip, 
Simon,  and  Andrew.  It  was,  as  is  indicated  by  its 
name,  the  house  of  fish, 
a  fishermen's  village  on 
the  lake  shore.  I,ater 
on  the  Tetrarch  Philip 
built  a  city  near  by,  and 
called  it  Julias  after  the 
daughter  of  Augustus, 
but  this  new  city  was 
placed  on  the  east  side 
of  the  Jordan.  At  this 
populous  centre  Jesus 
found  abundant  material 
for  His  zeal.  He  pour- 
ed out  His  heart's  trea- 
sures upon  Bethsaida 


SEA  OF  GALILEE. 


202  t  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

and  its  vicinity,  and  we  shall  find  Him  condemning 
it  bitterly,  with  its  neighbor  Chorazin,  for  its  indiffer- 
ence to  His  teaching.  The  Gospel  says  that  the 
Master  preached  in  many  cities  hereabouts,  passing 
hurriedly  from  one  to  another  like  a  man  with  good 
news,  hardly  waiting  to  see  the  effect  of  His  preach- 
ing. Everywhere  He  worked  so  many  miracles  that 
St.  Matthew,  true  to  his  Hebrew  tendency  to  note 
the  fulfilment  of  the  ancient  pro- 
phets, quotes  from  -Isaias  (ix.  i): 
' '  The  land  of  Zabulon  and  the  land 
of  Nephthalim,  the  way  of  the  sea 
beyond  the  Jordan,  Galilee  of  the 
Gentiles  ;  the  people  that  sat  in  dark- 
ness saw  great  light,  and  to  them  that 
sat  in  the  region  of  the  shadow  of 
death  light  is  sprung  up." 


THE  SHIP  OF  PETER. 


And  it  came  to  pass  that,  when  the  mul- 
titudes pressed  upon  him,  to  hear  the  word 
of  God,  he  stood  by  the  lake  of  Genesareth. 
And  he  saw  two  ships  standing  by  the  lake  : 
but  the  fishermen  were  gone  out  of  them, 
and  were  washing  their  nets.  And  going  up 
into  one  of  the  ships,  that  was  Simon's,  he 
desired  him  to  thrust  out  a  little  from  the 
land.  And,  sitting  down,  he  taught  the 
multitudes  out  of  the  ship.  Now  when  he 
had  ceased  to  speak,  he  said  to  Simon  : 
Launch  out  into  the  deep,  and  let  down 
your  nets  for  a  draught.  And  Simon  an- 
swering, said  to  him  :  Master,  we  have 
labored  all  the  night,  and  have  taken 
nothing  :  but  at  thy  word  I  will  let  down 
the  net.  And  when  they  had  done  this 
they  enclosed  a  very  great  multitude  of 
fishes,  and  their  net  was  breaking.  And 
they  beckoned  to  their  partners  that  were 
in  the  other  ship,  that  they  should  come 
and  help  them.  And  they  came,  and  filled 
both  the  ships,  so  that  they  were  almost 
sinking.  Which  when  Simon  Peter  saw, 
he  fell  down  at  Jesus'  knees,  saying  :  De- 
part from  me ;  for  I  am  a  sinful  man, 
O  Lord.  For  he  was  wholly  astonished, 
and  all  that  were  with  him,  at  the  draught 
of  the  fishes  which  they  had  taken  :  And  so 
were  also  James  and  John,  the  sons  of 
Zebedee,  who  were  Simon's  partners.  And 
Jesus  saith  to  Simon :  Fear  not :  from 
henceforth  thou  shaltbe  taking  men.  And 
when  they  had  brought  their  ships  to  land, 
leaving  all  things,  they  followed  him. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

TEACHING  FROM  PETER'S  BARQUE. 
— THE  MIRACULOUS  DRAUGHT 
OF  FISHES. 

Luke  v.  i— ii. 

THE  unruly  eagerness  of  the 
crowd  was  ever  a  cause  of  annoy- 
ance to  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  though 
to  Himself  it  was  simply  an  occasion 
for  the  practice  of  loving  patience, 
and  in  one  instance,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  woman  cured  of  an  issue  of 
blood,  of  miracles.  It  was  used  by  Him,  on  an  occasion 
which  we  have  now  to  relate,  to  distinguish  Peter  from 
the  rest  of  the  chosen  band. 

To  be  close  at  hand  when  He  spoke,  actually  to 


TEACHING  FROM  PETER'S  BARQUE.  203 

look  into  His  face,  to  touch  Him — all  this  was  too 
precious  a  privilege  to  be  lost,  and  there  was  often 
a  heavy  crush  of  the  people  about  the  Master.  To 
do  justice  to  all  He  sometimes  ascended  a  rocky  hill; 
again,  the  steps  of  a  synagogue,  or  at  Jerusalem, 
those  of  the  Temple.  On  the  shore  of  the  lake  He 
occasionally  used  as  a  pulpit  one  of  the  little  ships 
of  His  disciples ;  generally,  it  would  seem,  Simon's 
boat,  apparently  an  accidental  circumstance,  but  taken 
in  connection  with  the  changing  of  that  Apostle's 
name  at  the  Jordan,  and  with  the  office  of  Apostolic 
primacy  which  He  afterwards  bestowed  on  him,  His 
choice  of  Simon's  ship  as  His  pulpit  was  evident- 
ly part  of  a  plan.  A  meaning  altogether  peculiar  has 
ever  attached  to  the  expression,  the  ship  of  Peter ;  it 
stands  for  the  Saviour's  infallible  authority  in  the 
Apostolic  Bishopric  of  Peter's  successors. 

How  beautiful  was  the  scene,   as  Jesus  sat  in  the 
boat,   gently  swayed  by  the  blue  waves  of  the  lake  ! 
The   calm   of  the    morning   hour,    the   charm   of  the 
landscape,    helped   our   Saviour's  kindly   tones  to  in- 
stil His  doctrine   into  souls  filled   with  religious   joy. 
No  temple  ever  built,  no  palace  of  marble  and   gold, 
could  have  given  Him  a  roof  so  splendid  as  the  sky 
of  Palestine,  nor  an  enclosure  so  lovely  as  the  lake 
with  its  waters  sparkling  in  the  sunlight,  the  green 
hills  of  the  shore,  the  great  throngs  of  eager  and 
reverent  listeners,   drinking  in  the  musical  tones 
of   the   voice   of   the    Messias. 
His  good  heart  ended  all  in  its 
own  way.     "  I^aunch  out   into 
the  deep,"  He  said  to   Simon, 
when   He   had   ended  His  dis- 
course,    "and    let   down    your 
nets  for    a   draught,"   as  if  He  FISHING-BOAT  ON  LAKE  GEN^AEE™ 


204 


' '  They  enclosed  a  very  great  multi- 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

wished  to  compensate  for  the  use  of  the 
ship,  as  well  as  to  stamp  His  preaching 
with  a  miracle.  Simon  said:  "Master, 
we  have  labored  all  the  night  and  have 
taken  nothing,  but  at  Thy  word  I  will 
let  down  the  net.  And  when  they  had 
done  this  they  enclosed  a  very  great  mul- 
titude of  fishes,  and  their  net  was  break- 
ing. And  they  beckoned  to  their  part- 
ners that  were  in  the  other  ship,  that  they 
should  come  and  help  them.  And  they 
came  and  filled  both  the  ships,  so  that 


tude  of  fishes,  and  their  net  was     they  were  almost  sinking."     This  miracle 


breaking. 


and  the  words  in  which  it  is  framed  for 
our  meditation  have  ever  been  the  comfort  of  Chris- 
tian missionaries,  and  of  others  who  labor  through 
weary  nights  and  weary  days  only  to  fail  and  fail 
again  in  gaining  souls.  At  last  the  reward  of  faith 
is  granted  by  the  I/ord  with  overwhelming  generosity, 
and  the  heart  of  the  zealous  envoy  of  Christ  is 
humbled  by  His  bounty  and  says,  as  Peter  did : 
"Depart  from  me,  O  Lord,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man." 
Peter  was  more  stunned  by  the  power  of  Jesus  than 
he  was  touched  by  His  kindness.  But  what  visions 
of  the  future  apostolate  were  called  up  by  our  Sav- 
iour's answer:  "Fear  not,  from  henceforth  thou 
shalt  catch  men."  When  all  had  reached  the  shore 
Jesus  said  to  them,  "Follow  Me."  These  fisher- 
men lacked  at  this  time  some  qualities  of  disciple- 
ship  afterwards  gained  in  high  degree ;  but  Jesus 
had  inspired  them  with  zeal  for  souls :  they  immedi- 
ately left  father,  companions,  ships,  nets,  the  very 
fish  He  had  just  given  them,  and  went  away  with 
Him,  never  more  to  leave  Him. 

A  yet  further  call,   and   a  more  public  one,   will 


THE  CLEANSING  OF  A  LEPER.  205 

be  given  them  before  many  days.  And  these  fisher- 
men will  yet  draw  their  nets  across  the  entire  sea 
of  humanity,  and  will  gather  the  multitudes  to  the 
shores  of  eternal  joy. 


"Fear  not ;  from  henceforth  thou  shall  be  taking  men." 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE    CLEANSING    OF    A    I,EPER. 
Matt.  viii.  2-4 ;  Mark  i.  40-44  ;  Luke  v.  12-16. 

THIS  poor  wretch  whom  Jesus  healed,  says  St. 
Luke,  "was  full  of  leprosy."  How  did  he  manage 
to  get  close  enough  to  Jesus  to  throw  himself  on  his 
face  and  crave  his  cure  ?  Perhaps  he  forced  his 
way  into  the  crowd  in  spite  of  the  legal  prohibition  to 
approach  his  fellow-men.  It  was  not,  however,  for- 
bidden to  lepers  to  travel,  but  they  were  bound  under 
severe  penalties  to  send  forth  the  warning  cry  :  *  *  Un- 
clean !  unclean  !  ' ' 

The  sanitary  rules  of  the  law  of  Moses  prevented 
the  spread  of  this  fearful  disease,  but  nothing  could 


"  THOU   CANST   MAKE    ME   CLEAN." 

And  it  came  to  pass  when  he  was  in  a 
certain  city,  behold  a  man  full  of  leprosy, 
who  seeing  Jesus  and  falling  on  his  face, 
besought  him,  saying:  Lord,  if  thou  wilt, 
thou  canst  make  me  clean.  And  Jesus 
having  compassion  on  him,  stretched  forth 
his  hand  ;  and  touching  him,  saith  to  him  : 
I  will.  Be  thou  made  clean.  And  when 
he  had  spoken,  immediately  the  leprosy 
departed  from  him,  and  he  was  made  clean. 
And  he  strictly  charged  him,  and  forth- 
with sent  him  away.  And  he  saith  to 
him:  See  thou  tell  no  one,  but  go,  shew 
thyself  to  the  high  priest,  and  offer  for  thy 
cleansing  the  things  that  Moses  command- 
ed, for  a  testimony  to  them.  But  he  being 
gone  out,  began  to  publish,  and  to  blaze 
abroad  the  word  ;  so  that  [Jesus]  could  not 
openly  go  into  the  city,  but  was  without  in 
desert  places,  and  they  flocked  to  him  from 
all  sides,  and  he  retired  into  the  desert  and 
prayed. 


2o6  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

secure  its  extinction  from  the 
community.  The  unhappy  victim, 
whose  loathsome  sores,  as  the 
malady  developed,  finally  covered 
his  whole  body,  was  condemned  to 
live  apart,  generally  in  some  desert 
place,  the  afflicted  forming  little 
settlements  of  the  most  pitiable 
creatures  eye  ever  saw.  At  the 
crisis  of  the  disease  the  entire  body 
was  swollen,  the  nails  of  the  fingers 
and  toes  rotted  off,  and  the  eyes, 
ears,  nostrils,  and  mouth  exuded 
corruption,  the  voice  becoming 
harsh  and  shrill.  If  the  leper  could 
survive  this  period  of  misery,  he  became  of  an  astonish- 
ing whiteness,  every  part  of  his  body,  even  to  his  hair, 
being  perfectly  bleached.  But  after  this,  though  he 
was  miserable  enough,  his  malady  was  not  contagious, 
and  on  presenting  himself  to  the  priests  he  was  re- 
lieved of  the  leper's  interdict,  and  could  return  to 
his  home  and  family. 

However  it  may  have  happened,  our  poor  leper 
made  his  way  to  Jesus  and  threw  himself  upon  the 
ground  before  Him,  amazing  everybody  by  his  bold- 
ness, now  hiding  his  hideous  face  and  now  show- 
ing it,  and  crying  out,  "Lord,  if  Thou  wilt,  Thou 
canst  make  me  clean."  Faith  in  the  Christ  he 
had,  and  trust  in  His  power — the  two  virtues  which 
are  the  latch  and  the  hinge  of  the  Lord's  heart. 
What  was  the  terror  of  the  crowd  to  see  Jesus  actual- 
ly reach  out  and  touch  and  caress  the  poor  leper, 
against  the  law  and  against  all  fear  of  contagion. 
Little  did  they  dream  that  He  was  Maker  and  Master 
of  all  law — that  He  would  touch  and  taste  and  be 


THE  CLEANSING  OF  A  LEPER. 


207 


clothed  with  our  moral  leprosy  without  being  made 
unclean  with  its  guilt.  "  I  will ;  be  thou  made  clean," 
said  our  Saviour  ;  "  when  He  had  spoken,  immediate- 
ly the  leprosy  departed  from  him  and  he  was  made 
clean."  The  hand  that  touched  him  was  not  made 
unclean,  but  the  entire  body  which  it  had  touched 
was  instantly  healed. 

And  now  Jesus  commanded  the  happy  man  to  go 
to  the  priest  and  show  himself,  according  to  the  law 
of  Moses,  and  obtain  a  certificate  of  health,  as  well 
as  make  the  proper  thank-ofiering ;  adding  a  pre- 
caution lest  the  priesthood  of  the  neighborhood,  hear- 
ing that  He  had  broken  the  law  of  touching  a  leper, 
should  be  enraged  against  Him :  ' '  See  thou  tell  no 
man."  The  time  was  not  yet  come  for  the  Messias 
fully  to  reveal  His  relation  to  the  old  order  of  re- 
ligion and  decree  its  complete  supersession.  His 
gentle  charity  had  only  violated  a  precept  which  He 
Himself  had  made  and  could  unmake,  but  His  spirit 
of  entire  obedience  was  active  for  the  edification  of 
the  people.  However,  the  cleansed  leper,  more  thank- 
ful than  obedient,  "being  gone  out,  began  to  pub- 
lish and  to  blaze  abroad  the  word." 


A  LEPER  HOSPITAL. 


208 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

JESUS  RETURNS  TO  CAPHARNAUM. — CURE  OF  THE 
PARALYTIC,  AND  THE  CONSEQUENT  DISPUTE 
WITH  THE  PHARISEES. 


Matt.  ix.  1-8 
JESUS  wished 


"SON,    THY    SINS    ARE    FORGIVEN    THEE." 

And  again  he  entered  into  Capharnaum 
after  some  days.  And  it  was  heard  that  he 
was  in  the  house,  and  many  came  together, 
so  that  there  was  no  room,  no  not  even  at 
the  door  ;  and  he  spoke  to  them  the  word. 
And  it  came  to  pass  on  a  certain  day,  as 
he  sat  teaching,  that  there  were  also  Phari- 
sees and  doctors  of  the  law  sitting  by,  that 
were  come  out  of  every  town  of  Galilee 
and  Judea  and  Jerusalem  ;  and  the  power 
of  the  Lord  was  to  heal  them.  And  be- 
hold they  brought  to  him  one  sick  of  the 
palsy,  lying  in  a  bed,  who  was  carried  by 
four  ;  and  they  sought  means  to  bring  him 
in  and  to  lay  him  before  him.  And  when 
they  could  not  find  by  what  way  they 
might  bring  him  in,  because  of  the  multi- 
tude, taey  went  up  upon  the  roof,  and  let 
him  down  through  the  tiles  with  his  bed 
into  the  midst  before  Jesus.  And  when 
Jesus  had  seen  their  faith,  he  saith  to  the 
|  sick  of  the  palsy  :  Son,  thy  sins  are  forgiven 
thee.  And  there  were  some  of  the  scribes 
sitting  there,  and  thinking  in  their  hearts  : 
Why  doth  this  man  speak  thus  ?  he  blas- 
phcmeth.  Who  can  forgive  sins,  but  God 
only  ?  Which  Jesus  presently  knowing  in 
his  spirit,  that  they  so  thought  within 
themselves,  saith  to  them  :  Why  think  you 
these  things  in  your  hearts  ?  Which  is 
easier,  to  say  to  the  sick  of  the  palsy  : 
Thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee  ;  or  to  say  : 
Arise,  take  up  thy  bed,  and  walk  ?  But 
that  you  may  know  that  the  Son  of  man 
hath  power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins  (he 
saith  to  the  sick  of  the  palsy),  I  say  to  thee, 
Arise,  take  up  thy  bed,  and  go  into  thy 
house.  And  immediately  he  arose ;  and 
taking  up  his  bed,  went  his  way  in  the 
sight  of  all,  so  that  all  wondered,  and 
glorified  God,  saying :  We  never  saw  the 
Tike.  And  he  went  forth  again  to  the  sea- 
side :  and  all  the  multitude  came  to  him, 
and  he  taught  them. 


;  Mark  ii.  I-JTJ  ;  Luke  v.  17-26. 

to  prevent  His  miracles  from  becom- 
ing in  the  people's  eyes  the  main 
object  of  His  mission.  This  would 
be  a  reversal  of  the  true  order.  His 
miracles  were  like  the  seals  upon 
title-deeds,  the  authentication  of  His 
doctrine.  The  multitude  might 
easily  be  so  dazzled  by  the  great 
power  of  Jesus  over  the  laws  of 
nature  as  to  forget  that  His  main 
purpose  was  to  seek  and  to  save 
souls.  As  soon  as  He  appeared 
they  crowded  upon  Him  in  such  a 
way  as  to  hinder  His  publication  of 
the  Glad  Tidings  by  their  craving 
for  the  miraculous.  It  certainly  in- 
fluenced Him  in  keeping  out  of  the 
cities,  as  a  general  rule.  He  knew 
that  the  people  who  would  follow 
Him  into  the  country  would  be  of 
the  more  earnest  sort.  Meantime  in 
the  country  He  would  be  better 
placed  for  an  occasional  retreat  into 
total  solitude,  in  which  He  could 
enjoy  those  hours  of  prayer  to  His 
Father  which  were  the  strength  and 
the  consolation  of  His  human  exis- 
tence. Before  carrying  out  this 
plan  He  would  visit  Capharnaum 


JESUS  RETURNS  TO  CAPHARNAUM. 


209 


to  look  after  the  good  seed  He  had  sown  there. 
A  sort  of  investigating  committee  awaited  Him. 

Doctors  of  the  law  and  leading  Pharisees 
had  come  from  all  directions,  some  even  from 
Jerusalem,  drawn  by  the  rumor  of  His  miracles 
and  of  the  novelty  of  His  teaching,  or  sent  by 
the  highest  officials  of  the  Jewish  Church.  The 
intriguing  priesthood,  who  had  quarrelled  with  "  One  sick  of  the  Palsy-" 
Him  in  the  Holy  City,  easily  found  the  right  sort  of 
men  for  their  purpose  ;  these  had  come  to  Caphar- 
naum.  They  were  rabbis  of  various  grades  of  influ- 
ence and  their  power  was  great ;  they  shared  personally 
in  the  deep  reverence  of  the  people  for  the  law  which 
they  expounded,  although  a  great  proportion  of  them 
were  tainted  with  Pharisaism.  Such  as  these  led  the 
concourse  of  people  which  blocked  the  very  doors  of  the 
house — no  doubt  Peter's — in  which  the  Messias  lodged  : 
He  must  address  them  ;  He  did  so  most  willingly. 

The  deep  silence  of  the  auditory  and  the  strong 
but  gentle  tones  of  the  Master's 
voice  were  interrupted  by  a  singu- 
lar incident.  A  helpless  paralytic 
had  arrived,  borne  on  a  litter  by 
his  attendants.  It  was  vain  to 
seek  admission  to  Jesus  through 
the  door ;  probably  a  score  of  un- 
fortunates had  already  tried  and 
failed.  Now,  in  the  Orient  there 
is  generally  an  outside  stairway  or 
ladder  leading  to  the  flat  roof  of 
the  dwelling.  What  the  feebler^ 
will  of  the  other  miracle-seekers 
had  left  untried  the  enterprise  and 

strong  faith  of   the  paralytic  aud    .,  An  mitfe  stairway  Ieaa      to  the  flat  roof  oi 
his    friends    ventured    upon.      It  the  dwelling." 


210  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

must  have  been  with  infinite  trouble  and  many 
sharp  pains,  but  it  was  done :  they  dragged  the 
bed  and  its  occupant  to  the  roof,  actually  displaced 
a  part  of  the  covering,  and  by  means  of  ropes  let 
the  infirm  man  down  into  the  house.  There  he  was 
with  his  pleading  eyes  and  his  crippled  form  at 
Jesus'  feet.  It  was  a  prayer  by  deed  as  well  as  word 
and  look,  and  Jesus  was  pleased.  He  could  not  re- 
sist such  faith ;  men  saw  it  in  His  face.  But  in- 
stead of  the  miracle  which  they  breathlessly  awaited, 
what  was  their  surprise  to  hear:  "My  son,  be  of 
good  heart;  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee."  To  cure 
diseases  of  the  body  is  not  the  height  of  His  power ; 
He  asserts  power  over  the  soul  vastly  more  marvellous. 
That  which  is  man's  most  secret  self,  his  conscience, 
is  what  Jesus  can  see,  heal,  raise  to  life.  But  is  not 
this  power  a  divine  monopoly  ?  Can  any  but  God 
forgive  sin,  whom  alone  sin  offends  ?  So  silently 
reasoned  the  spies  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees. 
They  said  no  word,  but  in  their  hearts  they  were 
shocked  and  scandalized.  Their  thoughts  ran  in  this 
wise  :  * '  Why  does  this  man  speak  thus  ?  He  blas- 
phemeth.  Who  can  forgive  sins  but  God  only?" 

To  speak  as  Jesus  had  spoken  was,  in  fact,  either 
to  be  a  blasphemer  or  to  possess  the  power  of  God. 
Jesus  knew  this,  had  foreseen  the  alternative,  read 
their  thoughts,  and  seized  His  point  of  vantage.  For 
if  in  God's  name  He  worked  miracles,  He  was  not  a 
blasphemer  in  forgiving  sins,  but  rather  by  claiming 
to  exercise  the  attributes  of  God  He  proved  His  di- 
vinity. And  now  His  first  miracle  was  to  reveal  to 
His  critics  their  unspoken  thoughts ;  His  second  to 
put  life  into  the  dead  nerves  of  the  cripple:  "Why 
think  you  these  things  in  your  hearts?  Which  is 
easier,  to  say  to  the  sick  of  the  palsy :  Thy  sins  are 


CURE  OF  THE  PARALYTIC. 


211 


forgiven  thee  ;  or  to  say  :  Take  up  thy  bed  and  walk  ?  " 
To  man  both  are  equally  impossible,  but  they  are 
alike  easy  to  God.  If  Jesus  could  stand  this  man  on 
sound  and  whole  limbs  by  a  word,  it  is  plain  He 
was  no  liar  in  anything  He  said  or  did  :  He  had  what- 
ever power  He  might  claim  to  have.  It  is  by  exercise 
of  power  over  the  visible  world  that  men  may  rightly 
claim  the  possession  of  authority  over  the  invisible,, 
The  ordeal  could  not  have  been  better  chosen.  If  He 
healed  this  man,  it  followed  that  He  had  power  over 
sin — He  could  heal  men's  souls.  He  received  no  an- 
swer to  His  challenge. 

And  now  Jesus  spoke  amid  breathless  expectation 
— can  He  heal  the  paralytic  ?  Our  Saviour's  voice  is 
firm  and  imperative  as  He  says  :  ' '  But  that  you  may 
know  that  the  Son  of  Man  hath  power  on  earth  to 
forgive  sins  (He  saith  to  the  man  sick  of  the  palsy), 
I  say  to  thee,  Arise,  take  up  thy  bed,  and  go  into  thy 
house."  The  dead  nerves  of  the  paralytic 
quivered  with  life,  his  bones  were  clothed 
with  strong  muscles,  he  suddenly  rose  up, 
caught  up  his  bed  from  the  floor,  and,  no 
doubt  after  fervent  thanks  to  his  double 
Benefactor  (who  had  not  only  healed  his 
body  but  cured  the  wound  of  mortal  sin 
in  his  soul),  he  made  his  way  triumph- 
antly through  the  wonder-stricken  crowd, 
glorifying  God.  So  did  the  assembled 
people  glorify  God  ;  but  the 
of  the  hostile  party  were 
rather  stricken  with  fear 
than  moved  to  thanksgiv- 
ing. They  went  away  say- 
ing :  ;<  We  have  seen  won- 
derful things  to-day." 


emissaries 


Arise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  go  into  thy  house." 


212  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER   XX. 

MATTHEW    THE   PUBUCAN. — THE   TIME    FOR    FASTING 

AND    THE    TIME    FOR    FEASTING. 
Matt.  ix.  9-17;  Mark  ii.  14-22  ;  Luke  v.  27-39. 

BUT  no  miracle  could  amaze  an  ordinary  Jew  in 
our  Saviour's  time  more  than  His  opening  the  door 
of  His  Church  to  publicans — the  most  odious  class  in 
the  community.  A  publican  was  an  officer  of  the 
Roman  revenue,  the  very  sign  and  standard  of  the 
pagan  tyranny  under  which  Israel  groaned ;  he  was 
the  very  type  of  the  idolatrous  usurpation.  If  him- 
self a  pagan,  he  was  in  that  an  unclean  thing  as 
well  as  a  minion  of  the  foreign  despot.  But  especially 
if  he  was  a  recreant  Jew  ;  as  an  enemy  of  his  re- 
ligion, a  betrayer  of  his  own  nation,  he  was  marked 
as  an  outlaw  to  every  good  Hebrew,  excluded  from 
the  synagogue,  incapable  of  offering  evidence  under 
oath.  Capharnaum  abounded  in  this  class  which  was 
under  so  deep  a  malediction ;  for  as  the  Roman  tax 
was  gathered  from  trade  and  barter  and  import  and 
export,  the  commerce  between  inner  Syria  and  the 
Mediterranean,  which  passed  through  its  streets,  paid 
heavy  tribute,  which  required  many  tax-gatherers. 
They  had  all  doubtless  heard  of  Jesus,  some  of  them 
had  seen  Him  from  afar  and  had  felt  the  charm  of 
His  voice ;  but  they  were  under  the  ban  and  dared 
not  approach  very  near  Him.  One  among  them,  I/evi, 
or  Matthew,  was  set  apart  by  God  for  an  example 
of  Jesus'  love  for  sinners. 

The  Saviour  was  returning  from  one  of  His  excur- 
sions into  the  country,  a  crowd  of  people  bearing 
Him  company  into  the  city.  He  purposely  passed 
near  the  publican,  who  was  sitting  at  his  table. 
Doubtless  he  saw  Jesus  and  envied  the  disciples  who 


MA  TTHE  W  THE  P  UBLICAN.  2 1 3 

were  close  to  Him,  and  helplessly 
longed  for  power  to  rise  and  join 
them.  Jesus  looked  upon  him, 
beckoned  him  to  come,  said  to  him, 
"Follow  Me!"  and  instantly,  as 
if  all  had  been  arranged  between 
them  beforehand,  he  rose  up  and 
followed  the  Master.  The  spell  that 
Jesus  lovingly  put  upon  him  con- 
quered greed  for  money  and  made 
him  one  of  our  Saviour's  Apostles. 

lyevi  changed  his  name  to  Mat- 
thew, The  Gift  of  God,  in  thanks- 
giving for  having  been  elevated 
from  an  outcast  of  the  Jews  to  close 
fellowship  with  the  Christ.  A  yet 
nobler  form  of  thanksgiving  was  his 
zealous  endeavor  to  bring  other 
publicans  to  our  Saviour.  He  al- 
ready felt  the  passionate  zeal  of 
an  apostle  in  his  blood.  Matthew 
therefore  prepared  a  supper,  invited 
many  of  his  fellow  customs  officials, 
and  Jesus,  true  to  His  principles, 
made  no  difficulty  in  accepting  an 
invitation  to  be  present,  though 
the  whole  company  was  under  the 
Jewish  ban. 

The  Pharisees  and  Scribes,  when  they  learned  of 
His  intention,  were  scandalized.  They  feared  to  pro- 
test to  the  Master's  face — they  drew  aside  the  disciples, 
simple  men,  whose  scruples  they  hoped  to  rouse,  or 
whose  timidity  they  hoped  to  frighten.  "  Why  doth 
your  Master  eat  and  drink  with  publicans  and  sin- 
ners?" Jesus  heard  this,  and  for  His  defence  He 


THE  VOCATION  OF  MATTHEW. 

And  when  Jesus  passed  on  from  thence, 
he  saw  a  man  sitting  in  the  custom-house 
named  Matthew,  a  publican,  Levi,  the  son 
of  Alpheus,  and  he  said  to  him  :  Follow 
me.  And  leaving  all  things  he  rose  -up 
and  followed  him.  And  Levi  made  a  great 
feast  in  his  own  house.  And  it  came  to 
pass,  that  as  [Jesus]  sat  at  meat  many 
publicans  and  sinners  sat  down  together 
with  Jesus  and  his  disciples.  For  they 
were  many,  who  also  followed  him.  And 
the  scribes  and  the  Pharisees,  seeing  that 
he  ate  with  publicans  and  sinners,  said  to 
his  disciples  :  Why  doth  your  master  eat 
and  drink  with  publicans  and  sinners  ? 
Jesus  hearing  this,  saith  to  them  :  1  hey 
that  are  well  have  no  need  of  a  physician, 
but  they  that  are  sick.  For  I  came  not  to 
call  the  just,  but  sinners.  Go  then,  and 
learn  what  this  meaneth  :  /  will  have  mercy 
and  not  sacrifice.  And  the  disciples  of 
John  and  the  Pharisees  used  to  fast :  and 
they  come,  and  say  to  him  :  Why  do  the 
disciples  of  John  and  of  the  Pharisees  fast 
often  and  make  prayers ;  but  thy  disciples 
do  not  fast  ?  And  Jesus  saith  to  them  : 
Can  the  children  of  the  marriage  fast,  as 
long  as  the  bridegroom  is  with  them  ?  As 
long  as  they  have  the  bridegroom  with 
them,  they  cannot  fast.  But  the  days  will 
come  when  the  bridegroom  shall  be  taken 
away  from  them  :  and  then  they  shall  fast 
in  those  days.  And  he  spoke  also  a  simil- 
itude to  them :  That  no  man  putteth  a 
piece  from  a  new  garment  upon  an  old 
garment:  otherwise  he  both  rendeth  the 
new,  and  the  piece  taken  from  the  new 
agreeth  not  with  the  old.  And  no  man 
putteth  new  wine  into  old  bottles  :  other- 
wise the  new  wine  will  break  the  bottles, 
and  it  will  be  spilled  and  the  bottles  will 
be  lost  But  new  wine  must  be  put  into 
new  bottles  ;  and  both  are  preserved.  And 
no  man  drinking  old,  hath  presently  a 
mind  to  new  :  for  he  saith,  The  old  is 
better. 


214 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


borrowed  a  popular  saying  :  * '  They  that  are  well 
need  not  a  physician,  but  they  that  are  sick." 
The  Pharisees  claimed  to  be  spiritually  sound — 
and  so  they  were  if  exact  external  observance  and 
loud  outward  profession  make  a  man  holy :  to 
them,  therefore,  and  by  their  own  claim,  the  Heal- 
er of  souls  was  not  sent,  but  rather  to  such  as  these 
ORIENTAL  WAY  OF  EATING,  very  publicans  and  the  sinful  men  who  consorted 
with  them.  And  He  gave  them  a  text :  "  Go  then,  and 
learn  what  this  meaneth  :  I  will  have  mercy  and  not  sac- 
rifice "  (Osee  vi.  6).  To  save  souls  is  more  pleasing  to 
God  than  to  offer  sacrifice.  To  seek  and  save  poor 
sinners  wandering  towards  eternal  destruction — this 
was  the  choice  of  Jesus,  rather  than  to  preach  exact 
observance  of  the  law.  Zeal  for  souls  outranked  even 
zeal  for  the  law.  Do  sinners  await  Him  ?  Everything 
is  set  aside  to  attend  to  them.  And  He  added  :  "  For 
I  am  not  come  to  call  the  just,  but  sinners  "  It  is  a 
curious  fact  that  this  doctrine  is  a  hard  one  for  some 
Christians  even  at  this  late  day  fully  to  understand. 

Beaten  on   the  question   of  the   guests,  the   enemy 
assailed  our  Lord  on  that  of  the  banquet  itself.     The 
Pharisees  were   great  fasters,    and   perhaps   this   very 
day   was  one   of  their  especial  fast  days.     They  were 
of  that  kind  of  ascetics  who,  on  account  of  abstaining 
themselves,  would  relieve  their  hunger  by  sprinkling 
( bitterness  upon  the  food  of  others.     They  opened,  be- 
sides, the  old  feud  between  the  disciples  of  John  the 
Baptist  and  those   of  Jesus:   "Why   do  the  disciples 
of  John   and   of  the   Pharisees    fast   often   and   make 
prayers,     but    Thy     disciples    do     not    fast?"      The 
Saviour's  manner  and  words  were   kindly  as  He  an- 
"  The  disciples  of   swered  :   ' '  Can  the  children  of  the  marriage   fast,    as 
the  Pharisees  fast   j          as   the  bridegroom   is  with   them?     As  long   as 

often     and      make  *  . 

prayers"  they  have    the    bridegroom    with  them    they  cannot 


TIME  FOR  FASTING  AND  TIME  FOR  FEASTING.    21 5 

fast."  Instantly  the  disciples  of  John  must  have 
recalled  the  same  terms  used  by  their  master  in 
speaking  of  Jesus.  He  is  the  bridegroom ;  His 
Church,  whom  His  disciples  represent,  is  the 
bride ;  and  God  His  Father  would  -have  the  es- 
pousals of  His  Son  celebrated  with  every  joy. 
Who  ever  heard  of  fasting  at  a  wedding-feast? 
"But,"  He  added  sadly,  thinking  of  the  future, 
'  *  the  days  will  come  when  the  bridegroom  shall 
be  taken  away  from  them,  and  then  they  shall 
fast  in  those  days." 

It  is  a  renewal  of  the  prophecy  first  made  in 
the  figure  of  the  destruction  of  the  Temple,  and 
then  in  that  of  the  brazen  serpent,  now  yet  more 
plainly  and  without  any  figure  of  speech.  At  every 
step  on  His  way  He  must  pass  beneath  the  shadow  of 
the  Cross,  now  dimly  seen,  but  gradually  growing 
plainer.  He  is  looking  into  the  faces  of  some  who  will 
play  a  part  in  the  tragedy  :  the  Pharisees,  who  will  con- 
spire against  Him  and  finally  triumph ;  His  disciples, 
who  will  be  hunted  like  wild  beasts,  condemned  to 
prison,  weep  many  bitter  tears,  finally  pour  out  their 
hearts'  blood  to  cement  the  foundations  of  His  Church. 
Fasting  and  weeping  and  sorrow  enough  in  its  time  ; 
but  let  all  rejoice  in  the  brief  day  of  the  bride- 
groom's happy  presence  among  them. 

But,  they  might  have  asked,  why  not  at  once  re- 
veal the  entire  plan,  the  whole  future  of  the  new 
dispensation  ?  He  answers  by  comparing  His  auditors, 
including  His  disciples,  to  an  old  garment  in  need 
of  mending  :  * '  No  man  putteth  a  piece  from  a  new 
garment  upon  an  old  garment ;  otherwise  he  both 
rendeth  the  new,  and  the  piece  taken  from  the  new 
agreeth  not  with  the  old."  If  Jesus  suddenly  imposed 
on  the  old  religion  the  entire  system  of  belief  and 


A  PHARISEE  PRAYING  IK 
PUBLIC. 


Si6  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

practice  belonging  to  the  new,  He  would  precipitate 
a  conflict.  The  genuine  Hebrew  character  is  not  yet 
elevated  enough  to  assimilate  the  new  religious  spirit, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Christian  religion  has 
nothing  to  gain  from  Judaism.  The  future  of  the 
Church  was  destined  to  demonstrate  this.  Even  the 
most  fervent  converts  from  Judaism  found  it  hard  to 
receive  the  Gentiles  upon  terms  of  equality,  or  to 
allow  the  Mosaic  law  to  be  put  aside  as  a  worn-out 
and  unmendable  garment.  Peter  must  have  a  new 
revelation  before  he  would  frankly  and  unreservedly 
go  to  the  Gentiles,  and  Jesus  must  call  in  a  new 
Apostle,  Saul  of  Tarsus,  to  supply  fully  the  wants  of 
the  pagan  nations.  Jesus  must,  therefore,  exercise 
judgment  in  forming  His  followers,  souls  little  ac- 
customed to  His  holy  way,  and  only  to  be  broadened 
and  deepened  by  loving  and  gentle  patience.  All 
this  is  a  precious  lesson  to  those  who  aspire  to 
make  converts  to  Christ's  true  Church  from  the  ad- 
herents of  the  many  Christian  sects  around  us. 

He  enforced  this  caution  by  another  comparison, 
suggested  by  the  wine  of  the  feast,  contained  in 
leathern  bottles  :  ' '  No  man  putteth  new  wine  into 
old  bottles,  otherwise  the  new  wine  will  break  the 
bottles,  and  it  will  be  spilled  and  the  bottles  will  be 
lost.  But  new  wine  must  be  put  into  new  bottles, 
and  both  are  preserved."  He  compares  the  new  faith, 
alive  with  vigorous  activity,  to  new  wine.  To  fill  a 
man  with  the  ardent  and  impulsive  zeal  of  Christian- 
ity, he  must  not  be  of  the  old  order — all  absorbed 
in  the  one  purpose  of  preventing  change  from  estab- 
lished forms.  When  men's  souls  are  made  over,  and 
become  new  in  thought  and  temper,  He  will  give 
them  the  new  religion  in  all  its  integrity.  New  wine, 
even  of  a  better  grape,  is  not  so  pleasing  as  the 


WOMAN  CURED  OF  AN  ISSUE  OF  BLOOD.  217 

well-ripened  juice  of  an  inferior  grape  even  of  es- 
sentially lower  quality.  "  No  man  drinking  old  wine 
hath  presently  a  mind  to  new,  for,  he  saith,  The 
old  is  better."  So  must  men's  souls  grow  accustomed 
to  the  Gospel,  and  gradually  become  familiarized 
with  its  harsh-tasting  rules,  till  their  old  ways  of 
self-righteousness  shall  finally  pall  upon  them.  The 
teacher  who  succeeds  in  leading  them  to  this  is  like 
St.  Paul,  who  was  all  things  to  all  men  that  he 
might  gain  all.  To  feeble  souls  a  little  effort  is  pro- 
posed, not  great  heroic  acts,  of  which  they  are  in- 
capable till  after  a  long  novitiate. 

Thus  did  Jesus  discourse  at  table,  on  this  occasion 
and  on  many  others  afterwards  ;  giving  His  hearers, 
amid  the  gentle  influences  and  exchanges  and  kind 
offices  incident  to  such  gatherings,,  the  most  sublime 
doctrines  of  His  religion.  We  shall  see  Him  defend- 
ing the  great  penitent  Magdalen  at  a  dinner,  giving 
some  of  His  most  remarkable  parables  on  similar 
occasions,  and  at  last  associating  with  the  name  Supper 
His  highest  gift  to  man,  His  own  living  flesh  and 
blood. 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE    WOMAN    CURED     OF    AN    ISSUE    OF    BI.OOD. — THE 
RAISING   TO   LIFE    OF   THE   DAUGHTER   OF  JAIRUS. 

Luke  viii.  40-56 ;  Mark  v.  21-4.3  •   Matt.  ix.  18-26. 

THAT  whole  day  had  been  full  of  lofty  teaching. 
It  was  to  close  with  a  stupendous  miracle — the  raising 
of  a  dead  girl  to  life. 

The  banquet  was  suddenly  interrupted  by  the  en- 
trance of  a  man  of  note,  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue. 
His  name  was  Jairus,  and  he  was  distracted  with 
grief.  "He  fell  down  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  beseech- 


218 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


ing  Him  that  He  wouia  come  into  his  house,  for  he 
had  an  only  daughter  almost  twelve  years  old,  and  she 
was  dying."  His  haste,  his  sobs,  his  prominence  in 
the  city,  his  disregard  of  his  reputation  in  entering 
the  ' '  unclean  ' '  company  of  the  banquet,  his  prostra- 
tion at  Jesus'  feet,  appealed  to  a  heart  always  easily 
moved.  "My  daughter  is  at  the  point  of  death; 
come,  lay  Thy  hand  upon  her  that  she  may  be  safe 
and  may  live."  Willingly  did  Je- 
sus rise  and  follow  him,  the  dis- 
ciples keeping  Him  company. 

As  soon  as  He  reached  the  street 
a  great  multitude  surrounded  Him 
— many  had  been  waiting  outside 
for  hours,  we  may  suppose,  to  get 
a  sight  of  the  wonder-worker,  others 
had  followed  the  ruler  to  the  doors, 
and  many  more  quickly  ran  up  when 
the  word  was  passed  that  the  great 
prophet  was  to  be  seen.  Among 
them  was  ' '  a  woman  having  an  is- 
sue of  blood  twelve  years,  who  had 
bestowed  all  her  substance  on  phy- 
sicians and  could  not  be  healed." 
In  those  days  medical  treatment  for 
such  complaints  was  but  uselessly 
added  torment — she  was  only  the 
worse  for  it.  Besides  this  bodily 
evil,  she  was  on  account  of  it  "  un- 
clean "  according  to  the  Mosaic  law, 
divorced,  perhaps,  from  her  hus- 
band, and  subjected  to  most  bur- 
densome rules  in  her  daily  life. 
Her  faith  in  Jesus  was  supreme. 
Dreading  to  reveal  her  misery  in 


"WHO  HATH  TOUCHED  MY  GARMENTS?' 

And  as  he  was  speaking  these  things 
unto  them,  behold  there  came  a  man  whose 
name  was  Jairus,  and  he  was  a  ruler  of  the 
synagogue  :  and  he  fell  down  at  the  feet  of 
Jesus,  beseeching  him  that  he  would  come 
into  his  house.  For  he  had  an  only  daugh- 
ter almost  twelve  years  old,  and  she  was 
dying.  And  he  besought  him  much,  say- 
ing :  My  daughter  is  at  the  point  of  death  ; 
come,  lay  thy  hand  upon  her,  that  she  may 
be  safe,  and  may  live.  And  he  went  with 
him,  and  a  great  multitude  followed  him, 
and  they  thronged  him.  And  there  was  a 
certain  woman  having  an  issue  of  blood 
twelve  years,  who  had  bestowed  all  her 
substance  on  physicians,  and  could  not  be 
healed  by  any  :  who  when  she  had  heard  of 
Jesus,  came  in  the  crowd  behind  him,  and 
touched  his  garment.  For  she  said  :  If  I 
.shall  touch  but  his  garment,  1  shall  be 
whole.  And  forthwith  the  fountain  of  her 
blood  was  dried  up,  and  she  felt  in  her 
body  that  she  was  healed  of  the  evil.  And 
immediately  Jesus  knowing  in  himself  the 
virtue  that  had  proceeded  from  him,  turn- 
ing to  the  multitude,  said :  Who  hath 
touched  my  garments  ?  And  all  denying, 
Peter  and  they  that  were  with  him  said  : 
Master,  the  multitudes  throng  and  press 
thee,  and  dost  thou  say,  Who  touched 
me  ?  And  Jesus  said  :  Somebody  hath 
touched  me  :  for  I  know  that  virtue  is  gone 
out  from  me.  But  the  woman  fearing  and 
trembling,  knowing  what  was  done  in  her, 
and  seeing  she  was  riot  hid,  came  and  fell 
down  before  him,  and  told  him  all  the 
truth,  and  declared  before  all  the  people 
for  what  cause  she  had  touched  him,  and 
how  she  was  immediately  healed.  But 
Jesus  seeing  her,  said  :  Be  of  good  heart, 
daughter :  thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole  ; 
go  thy  way  in  peace.  And  the  woman  was 
made  whole  from  that  hour. 


WOMAN  CURED  OF  AN  ISSUE  OF  BLOOD.  219 

the    presence    of    the     crowd,     and    jostled    roughly 
about   by   rude  men,    she  yet  persevered:   "  If  I   but 
touch     His   garment,    I   shall    be   healed,"    she    said 
to  herself.     Watching   her  chance,  she  boldly  pressed 
into  the  cap  of   the  human  wave   surging  after  Him, 
and     was    thrust    upon    the     Saviour    from     behind. 
She   clasped  in   her   hand   the   hem   of  His   garment, 
the  zizith,  or  woollen  fringe  of  His  mantle.     "  She  felt 
in   her    body    that    she    was    healed    of   the    evil "  ; 
strength,    vigor,    soundness,   flowed   into  her,    as  per- 
ceptible as  the  pain  and  languor  that  a  moment  before 
oppressed  her.     As  to  Jesus;  the  touch  of  that  hand 
of  faith   had  thrilled   to   His  heart   of  love — she  had 
stolen  what  He  would  gladly  have  given  her.     Halt- 
ing and  turning  to  the   multitude,   He   said:    "Who 
hath    touched    My    garments  ?  ' '      His    tone    was    so 
solemn   that   utter   silence  followed ;    but  Jesus    must 
force   the   recipient   of  His   bounty   to   reveal   herself. 
Peter  exclaims :   ' '  Master,  the  multitudes  throng  and 
press  Thee,  and  dost  Thou  say,   Who  touched  Me?" 
But   He  insisted:   "Somebody   hath  touched  Me,    for 
I  know  that  virtue  hath  gone  out  from  Me, ' '  and  His 
eye   searched   the   silent    faces   gathered   about   Him. 
Meantime     the     woman,    fearing    and 
trembling,  yet  very  grateful,  was  a  prey 
to      conflicting      senti- 
ments.     But   she   must 
be   made    to    own    the 
truth,    for    the     purpose    of 
Jesus  was  to  show  that  her 
cure  took  place  because  in  touching  His 
garment    she   had  touched   His  heart. 
She  *'  fell  down  before  Him,"  declared 
before  all  the  people  for  what  cause  she 

.       ,  .      ,  T_..  .,  ,  ,  .  "If  I  but  touch  his  garment,  I  shall 

had  touched  Him,  and  how  she  was  im-  be  healed." 


220 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


mediately  cured.  But  Jesus  said  :  "Be  of  good  heart, 
daughter:  thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole  ;  go  thy  way 
in  peace."  Pious  tradition  records  that  this  woman 
was  the  far-famed  Veronica,  otherwise  Berenice,  who, 
when  Jesus  was  going  to  Calvary,  braved  both  Jewish 
and  Roman  hate  and  stopped  the  sad  procession,  caring 
naught  for  the  oaths  and  fury  of  the  mob,  and  wiped 
the  sweat  and  blood  and  dust  from  our  Saviour's  face. 
If  the  tradition  be  true,  the  divine  picture  left  upon 
Veronica's  towel  is  the  authentic  portrait  of  the  Man 
of  Sorrows,  a  pathetic  legacy  bequeathed  to  us  by 
the  hands  of  a  woman  in  reward  for  woman's  great 
faith  and  mighty  courage. 

But  all  this  delayed  the  journey  to  the  house  of 
Jairus.  Considerable  time  was  consumed  in  the  cure 
and  its  accompanying  occurrences.  The  poor  father 
must  have  more  than  once  urged  our  Saviour  to  hasten 
on.  And  his  anxiety  was  too  well  founded:  "Thy 

daughter  is 
dead,"  cried  a 
hurried  messen- 
ger— no  use  to 
trouble  the  Mas- 
ter  further! 
The  unhappy 
father  was  smit- 
ten as  with  a 
thunderbolt.  It 
seemed  as  if 
death  were  some 
malignant  ene- 
my of  Jesus,  who 
had  tightened 
his  fatal  grasp 

MOURNING  SCENE  AT  A  HOUSE  IN  PALESTINE.  and        Snatched 


RAISING  OF  THE  DAUGHTER  OF  JAIRUS. 


221 


away  his  victim  lest  the  Saviour 
should  rob  him  of  his  prey.  "But 
Jesus,  having  heard  the  word  that 
was  spoken,  saith  to  the  ruler  of 
the  synagogue  :  Fear  not,  only  be- 
lieve ' ' ;  and  to  the  crowd  He  gave 
orders  to  remain  outside  the  hou.se, 
for  His  plan  was  as  much  as  pos- 
sible to  lessen  the  public  excite- 
ment. 

Peter,   James,   and   John,    privi-  "  The  damsel  is  not  dead,  but  sleepetn.' 

leged  witnesses  of  His  most  amazing  wonders,  were 
selected  to  enter  with  the  Master ;  the  mourners  were 
already  wailing,  and  as  our  Saviour  and  His  disciples 
came  into  the  stricken  household  the  funereal  flutes 
were  playing  dirges — which  indi- 
cates the  arrival  of  Jesus  as  being 
some  time  after  the  girl's  death. 
Jesus  showed  surprise  at  all  this 
1 '  tumult  of  people  weeping  and 
wailing,"  for  He  would  teach  us 
that  death  is  not  to  be  mourned 
over  as  an  unmixed  evil ;  and  also 
because  He  intended  to  bring  the 
girl  back  to  life.  "  Why  make  you 
this  ado  and  weep  ?  The  damsel  is 
not  dead,  but  sleepeth."  It  was  a 
light  sleep  indeed  to  Him  who  could 
wake  the  dead  with  a  gentle  whis- 
per;  but  to  those  who  had  seen  the 
child's  life  fade  out,  and  knew  that 
her  heart  was  still,  and  her  pale  lips 
felt  no  more  the  breath  of  life,  His 
words  were  a  mockery — "they 
laughed  Him  to  scorn."  "  But  He, 


THE  RULER'S  DAUGHTER. 
While  he  was  yet  speaking,  some  came 
from  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue's  house, 
saying :  Thy  daughter  is  dead  ;  why  dost 
thou  trouble  the  Master  any  farther  ?  But 
Jesus,  having  heard  the  word  that  was 
spoken,  saith  to  the  ruler  of  the  syna- 
gogue :  Fear  not,  only  believe.  And  he 
admitted  not  any  man  to  follow  him,  but 
Peter,  James,  and  John  the  brother  of 
James.  And  they  come  to  the  house  of  the 
ruler  of  the  synagogue  ;  and  he  seeth  a 
tumult  and  people  weeping  and  wailing 
much.  And  going  in  he  saith  to  them  : 
Why  make  you  this  ado  and  weep  ?  the 
damsel  is  not  dead,  but  sleepeth.  And  they 
laughed  him  to  scorn.  But  he  having  put 
them  all  out,  taketh  the  father  and  the 
mother  of  the  damsel,  and  them  that  were 
with  him,  and  entereth  in  where  the  damsel 
was  lying.  And  taking  the  damsel  by  the 
hand  he  saith  to  her  :  Talitha  cumi,  which 
is,  being  interpreted :  Damsel,  I  say  to 
thee,  arise.  And  her  spirit  returned,  and 
immediately  the  damsel  rose  up,  and 
walked  ;  and  she  was  twelve  years  old. 
And  they  were  astonished  with  a  great  as- 
tonishment. And  he  charged  them  strictly 
that  no  man  should  know  it,  and  command- 
ed that  something  should  be  given  her  to 
eat. 


222 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


having  put  them  all  out,  taketh  the  father  and  the 
mother  of  the  damsel,  and  they  that  were  with  Him, 
and  entereth  in  where  the  damsel  was  lying."  There 
she  lay  ready  for  the  tomb.  But  the  Lord  of  life  and 
death  takes  her  white,  cold  hand  in  His,  and  saith 
to  her:  "  Talitha  cumi,  which  is,  being  interpreted, 
Damsel,  I  say  to  thee  arise."  It  is  a  command  ad- 
dressed to  a  corpse,  or  rather  to  a  disembodied  spirit 
far  off  in  the  regions  of  death,  yet  given  as  a  master 
commands  a  servant.  In  after  times  Peter  told  it 
in  the  original  tongue  to  his  disciple  Mark,  that  he 
might  convey  to  us  the  very  accents  of  this  awful 
power.  And  how  great  the  astonishment  at  beholding 

terrible  death  meekly  obedi- 
ent. "  Her  spirit  returned, 
and  immediately  the  damsel 
rose  up  and.  walked."  Je- 
sus, who  did  not  confine  His 
charity  to  great  gifts  like 
life  itself,  bade  them  give 
her  some  food. 

He  could  not  suppose  that 
such  a  wonder  as  this  could  be 
kept  secret :  the  Apostles  pres- 
ent, the  father,  the  mother, 
the  expectant  multitude 
would  soon  blaze  it  abroad. 
But  He  hoped  to  suppress  the 
knowledge  of  it  long  enough 
to  get  away  from  the  city,  and 
so  He  charged  them  to  keep 
it  secret.  He  quickly  passed 
out  towards  the  lake,  entered 
one  of  His  disciples'  boats, 
"  Talitha  cumi."  and  escaped  across  the  water. 


FINAL  CALLING  OF  THE  TWELVE  APOSTLES.    223 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

THE    FINAI,    CALLING    OF    THE    TWELVE    APOSTLES. 

Matt.  x.  2-4.  ;  Ads  i.  ij  ;  Mark  in.  13-19 ; 

Luke  vi.  1 2 -i 6. 

So  far  the  Church  of  Christ  was 
in  an  inchoate  condition.  His  fol- 
lowers had  gathered  to  Him  as  emi- 
grant families  go  into  a  new  country, 
to  live  in  their  wagons  and  under 
trees  and  tents.  But  now  our 
Saviour  must  show  Himself  a  king 
and  proceed  to  the  organization  and 
enrollment  of  His  subjects.  He  is 
not  a  teacher  only  ;  He  is  a  founder. 
The  union  of  His  redeemed  children 
with  Himself  is  organic,  and  makes 
a  new  kind  of  life  in  God's  world, 
that  of  His  Church.  We  shall  see 
Him  likening  it  to  a  vine  with  its  branches ;  to  a 
house  with  its  foundations  and  its  superstructure  of 
walls  and  doors  and  windows  and 
roof;  to  a  net  with  its  fishermen 


and  its  many  kinds  of  fish ;  to  a 
woman's  batch  of  dough  with  its 
leaven ;  to  a  banquet  with  its  host 
and  guests  and  steward  ;  to  a  flock 
of  sheep  with  its  good  shepherd ; 
but  especially  and  always  He  names 
it  and  makes  it  a  kingdom.  The 
public  property  of  this  common- 
wealth of  God  shall  be  the  good 
done  by  one  to  another,  the  love 
that  is  the  breath  of  life  in  the  com- 
pany of  Jesus ;  as  also  shall  be  its 


THE    TWELVE. 

And  it  came  to  pass  in  those  days  that  he 
went  out  into  a  mountain  to  pray,  and  he 
passed  the  whole  night  in  the  prayer  of 
God.  And  when  day  was  come,  he  called 
unto  him  his  disciples,  whom  he  would 
himself,  and  they  came  to  him.  And  he 
made  that  twelve  should  be  with  him,  and 
that  he  might  send  them  to  preach  (whom 
also  he  named  Apostles),  Simon  whom 
he  surnamed  Peter,  and  Andrew  his  broth- 
er, and  James  the  son  of  Zebedee,  and 
John  the  brother  of  James,  and  he  called 
them  Boanerges,  which  is  the  sons  of 
thunder ;  Philip  and  Bartholomew,  Mat- 
thew the  publican  and  Thomas,  James  the 
son  of  Alpheus,  and  Simon  the  Cananean, 
who  is  called  Zelotes,  and  Jude  [or]  Thad- 


2 


deus  the  brother  of  James,  and  Judas 
Iscariot,  who  was  the  traitor.  And  he 
gave  them  power  to  heal  sicknesses  and  to 
cast  out  devils. 


224 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


ST.   ANDREW. 


faith,  safeguarded  by  a  divine  order  of  men 
to  rule  the  household,  to  draw  and  mend  the 
net,  to  prune  the  vine,  to  provide  guests  for 
the  banquet — that  is  to  say,  to  teach  the  truth, 
to  detect  error  and  to  condemn  it,  to  order  all 
things  sweetly  in  His  Church,  to  hand  down 
the  original  good  custom.  This  will  make 
Christ's  gift  to  men  continuous,  as  men  singly 
are  but  momentary ;  universal,  as  men  and 
their  nations  are  but  fragments.  And  there- 
fore the  Master  publicly  sets  apart  His  Apos- 
tles from  His  other  followers,  and  bestows 
upon  them  His  own  authority.  Several  of 
them  He  had  called  before  on  two  separate 
occasions,  and  the  others  He  had,  no  doubt, 
similarly  selected  and  tested,  as 
Holy  Church  has  ever  since  done 
in  her  choice  of  men  for  the  apos- 
tolic ministry.  And  now  He  pre- 
pares for  the  final  act. 

Jesus  made  ready  for  institut- 
ing His  Apostolate  by  spending 
a  ' '  whole  night  in  the  prayer  of 
God.  And  when  day  was  come, 
He  called  unto  Him  His  disciples. 
And  He  made  that  twelve  should 
be  with  Him,  and  that  He  might 
send  them  to  preach,  whom  also 
He  named  Apostles."  Hereto- 
fore it  was  men  and  women,  and 
crowds  of  them,  coming  and  going, 
seeking  and  finding  and  losing  Jesus.  But  from  now 
on  to  be  with  an  Apostle  is  to  know  where  and 
when  and  how  to  secure  the  full  presence  of  Jesus. 
That  this  might  be,  He  pays  His  filial  homage  to 


ST.   SIMON. 


FINAL  CALLING  OF  THE  TWELVE  APOSTLES.    225 

His  Father  all  the  night  long  in  the  prayer  of  God's 
Spirit,  without  whose  guidance  He  undertook  nothing. 
The  vast  importance  of  this  step  was  fitly  shown  by 
this  long  prayer  of  our  Saviour.  In  the  morning 
the  general  discipleship,  the  mingled  friends  and  ad- 
herents, new-comers  and  old,  were  called  into  solemn 
assembly  to  hear  the  names  of  the  Apostles,  names  by 
which  prince  and  beggar  shall  be  christened  in  all 
civilized  humanity  till  the  end  of  time. 

Among  the  Apostles  there  was  one  whom  Jesus 
appointed  to  be  leader.  This  leader's  name  was 
changed  from  Simon  to  The  Rock  by  design,  for  he 
was  to  be  made  the  corner-stone.  His  close  asso- 
ciates, the  brothers  John  and  James  of  Zebedee,  knew 
the  Master  and  believed  in  Him  before  Peter,  and 
were  His  seniors  in  the  preliminary  vocation  at  the 
Jordan ;  John  also  was  the  more  beloved ;  Andrew 
was  the  very  first  disciple  called.  Yet  Simon  Peter  was 
given  the  special  office,  the  peculiar  primacy,  which 
was  to  be  that  fountain  of  perpetuity  and  that 
centre  of  unity  which  the  Holy  Ghost  estab- 
lished in  the  Roman  Bishopric.  Peter  was  a 
genuine  Galilean.  He  was  brave  without  pru- 
dence ;  he  was  ever  starting  something  new  ; 
he  it  was  who  generally  spoke  first,  moving 
ahead  of  the  others — a  true,  rough,  untamed 
Galilean.  He  was  destined  to  be  tamed  by 
the  sad  revelation  of  his  own  weakness,  God's 
usual  way  of  taming  chosen  souls. 

Of  the  disciples  thus  elevated  to  the  Apos- 
tleship,  the  greater  number,  after  the  coming 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  vanished  away  into  heath- 
endom to  convert  and  save  it,  and  only  local 
traditions,  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  give 
us  glimmerings  of  their  career.  Andrew  was 


ST.   PHILIP. 


226 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


ST,    JUDE. 


the  eldest  born  unto  Christ  of  the  whole  band, 
having  made  his  noviceship  with  the  Baptist. 
Of  the  sons  of  Zebedee,  James  and  John,  Sons 
of  Thunder  as  our  Saviour  styled  them  to 
show  their  electric  fire,  John  was  the  heir  of 
Jesus  and  our  representative  under  the  Cross 
in  the  bestowal  of  His  mother's  love.  He  was 
the  drinker- in  of  Jesus'  words,  and  their  chron- 
icler in  the  sublimest  writings  ever  penned 
by  man.  These  two,  with  Peter,  were  cho- 
sen by  Jesus  to  be  witnesses  ol  the  raising  of 
the  daughter  of  Jairus  to  life,  of  the  Trans- 
figuration, and  of  the  Agony  in  the  Garden. 
James  was  the  first  of  them  who  entered  the 
gate  of  heaven,  being  the  pioneer  of  Apostolic 
martyrdom ;  and  John  closed  the  glorious  line 
on  a  peaceful  bed,  and  closed  also 
the  narrative  of  redemption  by 
his  marvellous  vision  of  the 
Heavenly  City. 

Philip,  so  early  called,  was  that 
true  friend  to  Bartholomew  (origi- 
nally named  Nathanael),  whom  he 
brought  to  the  Messias.  Both 
were  very  familiar  with  Jesus,  es- 
pecially Philip. 

Matthew,  or  I/evi,  the  collector 
of  the  Roman  tax,  names  himself 
in  his  list  as  "  the  publican."  At 
the  word  of  command  he  arose 
without  a  moment's  hesitation, 
and  gave  up  all  and  followed  Jesus, 
though  he  had  been  a  publican,  he  gave  the  new 
religion  its  first  inspired  book,  in  which  he  shows  the 
links  of  the  old  law  with  the  new,  and  tells,  chiefly 


ST.    JOHN. 

True  Jew,  even 


FINAL  CALLING  OF  THE  TWEL  VE  APOSTLES.   227 

in  this   spirit,    of   the  active    life  and  wondrous  deeds 
of  the  Messias.  i 

Thomas  the  Doubter  is  a  great  figure  among  the 
twelve ;  a  reasoner,  a  questioner,  slow  to  believe,  a 
searcher  of  difficulties,  but  a  type  of  the  many  honest 
minds  in  all  ages  who  do  not  readily  believe  but  are 
invincible  in  the  faith  when  at  last  they  accept  it. 

James  (the  less  or  younger) ,  and  Jude  his  brother, 
were  sons  of  Cleophas,  who  was  either  himself  the 
brother  of  Joseph,  or  whose  wife  was  the  sister  of 
Mary  or  of  Joseph.  These  two,  their  brother  Josas 
or  Joseph,  and  their  sisters,  were  called  brothers  and 
sisters  of  the  Lord.  An  only  child  like  Jesus  was 
thus  complimented  by  Hebrew  custom.  Jude,  also 
called  I/ebbe,  and  again  Thaddeus  (to  distinguish 
him  from  the  apostate  Judas) ,  must  have  been  a  man 
of  deep  enthusiasm,  to  judge  him  from  his  fiery 
Epistle.  His  brother  James  was  for  thirty-seven  years 
Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  a  powerful  advocate,  at  the  coun- 
cil of  the  Apostles,  of  St.  Paul's  policy  towards  the 
Gentiles  and  of  his  revelations,  a  perfect  echo  in 
his  far-famed  Kpistle  of  many  essential  points  of 
Christ's  teaching. 

Simon  the  Zealous  had  been  probably  a  partici- 
pant in  the  insurrection  which  had  taken  place 
some  years  previously,  and  named  that  of  the 
Zealots  for  the  law.  If  this  be  true,  it  shows  that 
our  Saviour  was  not  unwilling  to  favor  even  an  ex- 
treme type  of  Hebrew  patriotism,  as  long  as  it  was 
not  Pharisaical. 

Finally,  there  is  Judas  Iscariot,  mentioned  in  the 
holy  narrative  only  by  compulsion,  the  dark  shadow 
in  this  pictured  group  of  heroes.  What  made  him 
an  Apostle  ?  Did  he  force  himself  into  the  company 
and  on  to  the  acceptance  of  Jesus,  from  the  start  8x.  JAMES. 


228 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


ST.  THOMAS. 


a  thief  and  a  traitor  ?  Rather,  he  was  first  honest 
in  his  attachment.  But  there  is  no  vice  so  killing 
as  avarice,  though  there  are  others  more  sudden 
in  their  stabs.  Judas  Iscariot  has  dignified 
avarice  by  making  its  product  the  traitor  of  all 
human  history.  How  could  Jesus  ever  choose 
him?  It  is  a  mystery.  We  can  only  suppose 
that  in  this  case  the  ordinary  rule  prevailed  ;  as 
in  other  cases  so  in  this,  the  Master  used  His 
'/,  human  means  of  information  only,  the  divine 
III  knowledge  remaining  suspended  and  apart.* 
Judas  was  a  man  of  affairs,  "  carried  the  purse," 
1  was  the  necessary  procurator  of  the  little  band. 
And  his  treason,  if  it  wrecked  his  own  salvation, 
was  made  one  powerful  means  of  the  salvation 

of  the  world. 

It   is   seen  that  Jesus  mingled 

in   His   Apostolate    the    most  in- 
congruous elements,  mingled  them 

together   in   a  union    ol    love    so 

strong  as  to  blend  them  into  one 

heart  and  one   soul :    they   quar- 
relled often,  but  always  to  be  made 

brethren  again.     He  chose  an  un- 

pardoned  rebel  against  the  Roman 

tyranny   and    a    gatherer    of   the 

Roman  tax ;   the  strong  and  calm 

and   ever   faithful   John    and    the 

impetuous  and  backsliding  Peter ;       ST.  BARTHOLOMEW. 

*St.  John  says  (v.  65),  that  "Jesus  knew  from  the  beginning  who 
they  were  that  did  not  believe  and  who  he  was  that  would  betray  Him." 
What  is  here  meant  by  the  words  "  from  the  beginning  "  ?  Do  they  mean 
'that  Jesus  knew  Judas  would  betray  Him  when  He  first  chose  him  as  a 
member  of  the  band  ?  Or  does  it  mean  that  He  knew  his  evil  intention 
the  first  moment  he  harbored  it  ?  The  latter  seems  to  us  to  be  altogether 
the  most  probable  meaning. 


FINAL  CALLING  OF  THE  TWELVE  APOSTLES.    229 

Jude  the  enthusiast  and  Thomas  the  doubter;  James 
the  contemplative  ascetic  is  a  high  official  among 
the  most  restless  and  roving  of.  missionary  bands. 
One  requisite  of  a  fully  .equipped  Church  alone 
is  lacking — a  man  of  intellectual  culture.  But  Jesus 
will  supply  that  want  in  the  learned  Scribe,  Saul  of 
Tarsus,  to  become  in  various  ways  the  most  notable 
of  all  the  Apostles  and  the  most  like  the  Master  in 
the  gift  of  persuasion. 

And  now  the  work  of  Jesus    is   not  simply   teach- 
ing  divine    truth,    it  is   the    making    a    new   people  ; 
the  Kingdom  of  God  is  formed.     The  new  dispensa- 
tion is   both   an  interior  condition  of  faith   and  right- 
eousness  and  an   external   order   and   government   of 
men;  it  is  a  living  organism,  with  its  own  pecu- 
liar corporate  life  flowing  out  from  and  into   the 
divine  human  life  of  Christ.     With  this  the  Re- 
deemer became  inseparably  identified.     Travelling 
back    and    forth,    teaching   the   people,    working 
miracles,  disputing  with    enemies,   the    Apostles 
were  always  with  Him.     His  relation  to  them  was 
essentially  superior  to  His  relation  to  others.     To 
instruct  them — how  very  greatly  they  needed  it  is 
always  evident — became  His   especial  work.     All 
were  of  that   "class"  which  our   Saviour  evan- 
gelized  with   so    much  joy,    the  working    class ; 
but  they  became  the  masterpieces  of  His  grace, 
the  messengers  of  His  truth  and  of  His  salvation 
to  the  entire  world.     They  were  the  first  officers 
in  His  everlasting  kingdom.  ST-  MATTHEW. 


230 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

THE  SERMON  ON   THE  MOUNT. 

i. — THE;  BEATITUDES. 

Matt.   v.  1-48,   and  m.  1-34,  and  vii.    1-29; 
Luke  vi.  17-49,  and  xii.  22-59. 

Y  the  choice  of  the  Twelve  Apostles  the  Church 
is  organized  ;  it  is  to  be  made  alive  by  the  teaching 
of  truth.  The  Church  may  be  compared  to  a  tree  ; 
the  external  organization  is  like  the  bark  and  the 
wood  ;  the  sap  is  the  doctrine  of  Christ.  Some  of  this 
doctrinal  instruction  had  already  been  given,  most 
of  it  remained  to  be  so,  and  Jesus  leads  His  Apostles 
apart  into  a  favorable  locality  where,  seated  on  a  hill- 
side, He  preaches  to  them  and  to  the  multitudes  His 
greatest  discourse — the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  He 
is  anxious  that  men  should  know  what  to  believe, 
how  to  think  rightly,  and  thereby  have  right  ways 
of  action.  He  is  mankind's  guide  to  right.  It  would 
have  sounded  strange  if  one  had  said  in  His  company, 
"It  makes  no  difference  what  a  man  believes  as  long 
as  he  follows  the  Saviour."  The  peculiar  action  of 
man  as  such  is  his  thinking.  Jesus  would  set  that 
right  for  all  men  and  for  ever  by  teaching  the  one 
true  doctrine  and  entrusting  it  to  His  one  true  Church. 
St.  I<uke  gives  us  a  brief  abstract  of  this  discourse, 
St.  Matthew  a  more  extended  account.  We  cannot 
know  how  long  it  took  our  Saviour  to  deliver  it, 
but  we  may  reasonably  suppose  that  He  dropped  and 
resumed  it  several  times,  and  that  what  is  only  a 
short  paragraph  in  the  Gospel  summary  may  possibly 
have  taken  an  hour  for  its  full  delivery.  St.  L,uke 
says  that  "  Coming  down  He  stood  in  a  level  place  " 
— that  is,  a  plateau  formed  in  a  hilly  place,  shown  to 


THE  SEA  TITUDES.  23 ; 

travellers  in  our  day,  some  distance  back 
from  the  way  northward  along  the  lake  shore 
and  called  the  Mount  of  the  Beatitudes. 
Many  hold  the  opinion  that  St.  Luke's  ver- 
sion is  an  account  of  a  repetition  of  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  at  another  time  and 
place.  At  any  rate,  the  two  discourses  are 
one  in  substance.  The  following  is  St. 
Luke's  introductory  account :  "  And  coming 
down  with  them,  He  stood  in  a  plain  place,  THE  SERMON  ON  THE  MOUNT, 
and  the  company  of  His  disciples,  and  a  very  great 
multitude  of  people  from  all  Judea  and  Jerusalem,  and 
the  sea-coast  both  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  who  were  come 
to  hear  Him,  and  to  be  healed  of  their  diseases.  And 
they  that  were  troubled  with  unclean  spirits  were  cured. 
And  all  the  multitude  sought  to  touch  Him,  for  virtue 
went  out  from  Him  and  healed  all.  And  lifting  up  His 
eyes  on  His  disciples,"  He  opened  His  discourse. 

Jesus,  according  to  His  custom,  passed  the  night 
in  prayer,  secluded  in  a  higher  spot  among  the  hills, 
and  when  He  had  come  down  from  His  solitude  He 
chose  His  Apostles,  as  we  have  seen.  Seldom  had 
so  vast  a  multitude  been  assembled  about  Him,  or 
one  so  representative  in  its  composition,  as  greeted 
Him  that  morning.  Towards  the  outer  edges  of  this 
open-air  temple  are  many  fragments  of  rock,  which 
were  very  convenient  seats  for  the  more  distant  audi- 
tors, many  of  whom  deserved  well  of  Him,  for  they 
had  journeyed  far  to  hear  and  see  the  Messias  :  "A 
very  great  multitude  of  people  from  all  Judea  and 
Jerusalem,  and  the  sea-coast  both  of  Tyre  and  Sidon." 
St.  Matthew  adds  to  these  the  people  from  Galilee, 
in  the  heart  of  which  province  He  was  teaching,  and 
from  beyond  the  Jordan.  There  were  Jews  and  their 
converts  from  every  section  of  Israel,  and  pagans 


232 


THE    BEATITUDES. 

^.nd  seeing  the  multitudes,  he  went  up 
o  a  mountain,  and  when  he  was  set 
svn,  his  disciples  came  unto  him.  And 
ining  his  mouth  he  taught  them,  saying  : 
:ssed  are  the  poor  in  spirit  :  for  theirs  is 

kingdom  of  heaven.  Blessed  are  the 
ek:  for  they  shall  possess  the  land. 
:ssed  are  they  that  mourn  :  for  they  shall 
comforted.  Blessed  are  they  that  hun- 
•  and  thirst  after  justice  :  for  they  shall 
re  their  fill.  Blessed  are  the  merciful : 

they  shall  obtain  mercy.     Blessed  are 

clean  of  heart :  for  they  shall  see  God. 
issed  are  the  peace-makers :  for  they 
.11  be  called  the  children  of  God  Bless- 

are  they  that  suffer  persecution  for 
lice'  sake :  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of 
iven.  Blessed  are  ye  when  they  shall 
ile  you  and  persecute  you,  and  speak 
that  is  evil  against  you,  untruly,  for  my 
e.  Be  glad  and  rejoice,  for  your  re- 
rd  is  very  great  in  heaven.  F"or  so  they 
secuted  the  prophets  that  were  before 
i. 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

of  all  sorts.  They  crowned  the 
plateau  with  a  great  circle  of  hu- 
manity ;  nearer  to  the  centre  was  a 
smaller  one  of  the  men  who  had 
been  more  or  less  habitually  in  the 
company  of  Jesus,  and  were  known 
as  disciples ;  and  then  the  newly 
chosen  Twelve  Apostles  had  the 
place  of  honor  at  His  feet.  It  was 
a  moment  of  joy  to  our  Saviour.  It 
was  like  the  first  rough  sketch  of 
an  artist's  masterpiece,  revealing 
the  picture's  inspiration  and  inviting 
a  more  perfect  working  out  of  de- 
tails. Here  is  His  Church  in  out- 
line, the  clergy  in  its  bishops  and 
priests,  the  beloved  people  gathered 
close  about  them,  and  His  own  revered  and  adored 
Self,  teaching  them  with  heavenly  power. 

What  strikes  us  first  and  last  in  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  is  its  reversal  of  all  human  wisdom. 
Men  seek  happiness,  or  in  other  words  to  be 
blessed,  by  means  of  wealth,  personal  author- 
ity, bodily  comfort,  the  subdual  of  enemies, 
the  applause  of  the  multitude.  The  Eight 
Beatitudes  of  Jesus  Christ,  or  eight  roads  to 
joy,  are  a  startling  contradiction  to  all  this. 
It  is  not  the  rich  who  are  blessed,  but  the 
poor :  the  heart  that  loves  God  and  man  bet- 
ter than  riches  is  the  kingly  heart.  The 
yielding  and  kindly  spirit  of  meekness  is  lord 
of  all — as  you  crush  the  fragile  flower  its  de- 
licious fragrance  overpowers  you.  Force  con- 
quers, but  sweetness  wins.  Force  is  hateful 
essed  are  the  poor  in  spirit."  in  its  coming  and  bitter  in  its  memories ;  kind- 


THE  BEA  TITUDES* 


233 


ness  is  ever  welcome,  is  never  followed  by  remorse  nor 
leaves  shame  behind.  But  how  strange  :  "  Blessed  are 
they  that  mourn ' ' !  Christ  has  made  a  sacrament  of 
tears.  The  bitterness  of  repentance  is  the  rind  of  the 
delicious  fruit  ot  reconciliation  to  God.  Then  comes  a 
blessing  on  the  holy  fire  of  longing  after  righteous- 
ness, a  fiery  hunger  and  thirst,  not '  to  devour  this 
world's  comforts  and  honors,  but  to  possess  God 
as  men  possess  their  bodily  nourishment.  We  know 
not  what  promise  made  in  all  His  life  is  so  gracious 
as  this  one  of  Jesus,  that  every  man  and  woman 
longing  after  God  with  hunger  and  thirst  of  soul 
shall  be  filled  with  God— with  knowledge  of  God, 
confidence  in  God,  love  of  God,  intimate,  person- 
al, sensible  union  with  God. 

And  now  He  promises  the  reward  of  kind- 
ness ;  to  do  good  to  men  is  to  receive  good  from 
God  ;  to  be  merciful  to  men  is  to  be  pitied  one's 
self  by  God.  Though  the  easiest  virtue  for  a 
noble  soul  is  to  pardon  an  enemy,  yet  Jesus  re- 
wards it  abundantly  ;  it  wins  what  every  soul  longs 
to  be  sure  of  possessing — God's  pardon  of  sin. 

The  Master  also  tells  us  how  men  may  see  God. 
It  is  by  innocence  of  life,  either  original  or  re- 
stored. Knowledge  gained  by  seeing  and  that 
gained  by  reasoning  are  different.  In  a  soul  free  from 
vice  both  are  joined,  the  second  being  the  handmaid 
of  the  first.  What  we  see  we  know.  A  foul  heart 
gives  forth  a  vapor  which  veils  the  mind's  eyes,  but 
a  pure  heart  is  surrounded  by  a  crystal  medium. 
The  innocent  or  the  pardoned  soul  sees  God  and 
God's  loving  promises  in  everything.  The  sinful 
soul  could  not  find  Him  in  heaven  itself. 

Peace- makers   are   praised ;    whom   do   we   love    so 
well  as  those  who,  even  as  mere  onlookers,  are  pained 


"  Blessed  are  they  that 
mourn." 


234  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

when  we  quarrel  more  than  we  are  ourselves,  and 
whose  soft  voices  plead  ever  for  peace.  The  peace 
of  God  is  their  gift  to  us,  and  they  own  it  as  chil- 
dren own  their  father's  love. 

Jesus  then  affixes  to  His  Church  and  her  mem- 
bers the  badge  of  suffering.  The  soul  that  stands 
for  truth  is  glad  of  the  honor  of  doing  so ;  but  it 
must  also  learn  how  to  be  glad  for  the  obloquy, 
the  stripes,  the  martyrdom  of  truth.  "Blessed  are 
they  that  suffer  persecution  for  justice'  sake,  for  theirs 
is  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  blessed  are  ye  when  men 
shall  revile  you  and  persecute  you,  and  shall  say 
all  manner  of  evil  against  you  untruly,  for  My  sake ; 
be  glad  and  rejoice,  for  your  reward  is  very  great 
in  heaven." 

From  that  day  to  this  the  public  and  private  study 
of  the  Beatitudes  is  not  only  the  devotional  but  also 
the  intellectual  occupation  of  Christ's  people — it  is 
His  school,  college,  university,  doctorate,  and  gradua- 
tion into  all  Christian  proficiency.  The  Church  can- 
not save  men  otherwise  than  by  teaching  and  train- 
ing them  to  obtain  happiness  in  this  way. 

The  humble,  yielding,  patient,  suffering,  deprived, 
calumniated,  loving  Christian  is  the  citizen  of 
the   Kingdom  of  God — the  citizen-soldier,  the 
citizen-professor,  the  citizen-beggar,  the  citizen- 
prince.     L,et  the  Church  flourish  by  any  other 
means,  let  there  be  but  a  single  generation  in 
which  she  wins  men  to  her  truth  and  righteous- 
ness  by   anything   except   self-sacrifice,  kind- 
ness,   sorrow,    poverty,    meek- 
ness, and  the  result  is  that  in 
the   succeeding   generation  she 
sloughs  off  all  she   had  gained 
together  with    much    she    had 


Blessed  are  they  who  hunger  and  thirst  after 
justice." 


THE  BEA  TITUDES. 


235 


possessed  before,  now  gangrened  by  evil 
association.  When  Jesus  taught  all  this 
it  seemed  a  foolish  reversal  of  the  true  re- 
lation of  things.  And  so  did  and  yet  does 
seem  the  Cross.  But  it  pleased  God  to 
save  the  world  by  the  folly  of  the  Cross. 
The  theory  of  Jesus  as  to  what  makes  men 
happy  and  blessed,  as  given  in  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  is  like  some  language  foreign 
to  our  own,  and  not  easily  mastered,  nor, 
once  mastered,  easily  retained  except  by  daily 
practice ;  yet  it  is  only  proficients  in  that 
language  who  may  converse  with  the  angels. 
St.  Luke  adds  a  portion  of  the  Sermon 
omitted  by  St.  Matthew.  It  must,  we  think,  "  Blessed  are the  Peace-makers-" 
be  inserted  after  the  Beatitudes,  for  it  is  their  affirmations 
strengthened  by  the  condemnation  of  their  negatives. 
Terrible  words !  Amazing  boldness  !  Sovereign  majesty 
of  this  Ruler  of  wayward  hearts  !  ' '  But  woe  to  you 
that  are  rich,  for  you  have  your  consolation.  Woe 
to  you  that  are  filled,  for  you  shall  hunger.  Woe  to 
you  that  now  laugh,  for  you  shall  mourn  and  weep. 
Woe  to  you  when  men  shall  bless  you,  for  according 
to  these  things  did  their  fathers  to  the  false  prophets." 
Every  Beatitude  must  have  its  contrary,  its  maledic- 
tion. Contrast  these  affirmatives  and  negatives  as 
Christ  promulgates  them,  and  you  have  the  yes  and 
no  of  all  happiness  and  misery.  Bitter  grief  is  es- 
sentially joined  with  striving  after  riches  and  power 
and  bodily  enjoyment  and  the  praises  of  men.  But 
how  startling  a  doctrine  to  our  fallen  race  is  this ! 
Let  any  man  who  stands  for  Christ  undertake  to 
preach  this  doctrine  with  however  much  discretion, 
however  sweetened  with  heavenly  kindness,  and  He 
will  soon  suffer  persecution  of  some  sort  or  other. 


THE    SALT    OF    THE    EARTH. 

You  are  the  salt  of  the  earth.  But  if  the 
salt  lose  its  savor,  wherewith  shall  it  be 
salted  ?  It  is  good  for  nothing  any  more 
but  to  be  cast  out,  and  to  be  trodden  on  by 
men.  You  are  the  light  of  the  world.  A 
city  seated  on  a  mountain  cannot  be  hid. 
Neither  do  men  light  a  candle  and  put  it 
under  a  bushel,  but  upon  a  candlestick, 
that  it  may  shine  to  all  that  are  in  the 
house.  So  let  your  light  shine  before  men, 
that  they  may  see  your  good  works,  and 
glorify  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven. 


236  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Indeed     the      representative      of 
Christ  must   be    on   his  guard,  lest 
he  become  more  anxious  for  discre- 
tion and  for  kindness  than  for   the 
integrity     of     his     principles.      Be 
he    parent,    friend,  priest,    or   pon- 
tiff,   his   main  purpose   must   be  to 
stand  firmly  if  kindly  upon  his  prin- 
ciples, or  he  will  lose  his  force  as  a 
teacher.     Our  Saviour  compares  His  disciples  to  salt, 
whose  power  to  preserve  depends  upon  its  sharp  and  bit- 
ter flavor.     He  also  compares  the  Church  to  a  luminary 
in  the  sky  shining  upon  the  whole  world,  its  rays  being 
the  principles  of  love,  of  detachment  from  earthly  joys, 
of  gentle  peace  and  forgiveness.     But  He  would  have 
us  take    these  truths  home  ;  and   therefore  He   makes 
them   the  homely   candle  upon  the  candlestick  of  the 
family   circle.     He    looks   into   the    future    family   of 
Christian  nations  and  beholds  His  Church  as  the  mid- 
day sun  of  their  civilization,  and  He  gives  His  bless- 
ing to   a   new   social  order,    in    which   the    Christian 
home    is   made    happy    by    Christian   self-denial    and 
Christian    family    affection.     In    this,    especially,    He 
emphasizes  the  great  truth   of  the  constitution  of  the 
Church  as  a  public  body,  an  institution  among  insti- 
tutions,    superior    to    all    others ;    also    as   a   personal 
religion,    an   individual    trait   so   powerful   as  to  form 
character   and   create  the   deepest   personal   loveliness 
known  to  humanity.     "  So  let  your  light  shine 
before   men,"  He  insists,  "that  they  may  see 
Ihey  who  sufT  your  good  works,  and  glorify  your  Father  who 
fer persecution.''  is  in  Heaven." 


OF  FORGIVENESS;  CHASTITY;  MARRIAGE.  237 

CHAPTER   XXIII.— CONTINUED. 

2. — LESSONS    OF    FORGIVENESS  J     OF    CHASTITY  ;     MAR- 
RIAGE AND    DIVORCE. 


HEN  Jesus  looked  backward  upon  the 
j]  Old  Law,  the  venerable  system  of 
morality  given  by  His  Father  to  Moses,  and  He  saluted 
it,  not  in  farewell  but  in  reward  of  merit,  as  being  now 
merged  into  the  new:  "  Do  not  think  that  I  am  come 
to  destroy  the  law  or  the  prophets ;  I  am  not  come  to 
destroy  but  to  fulfil.  For  amen  I  say  unto  you,  till 
heaven  and  earth  pass  not  one  jot  or  tittle  shall  pass  till 
all  be  fulfilled.  He  therefore  that  shall  break  one  of 
these  least  commandments,  and  shall  so  teach  men,  shall 
be  called  the  least  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,;  but  he 
that  shall  do  and  teach,  he  shall  be  called  great  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven."  This,  He  made  sure,  should 
not  be  mistaken  as  approval  of  the  legalism  of  the 
Pharisees,  nor  as  referring  to  the  ceremonial  ob- 
servances of  the  law,  but  to  its  principles.  Hence 
He  added:  "For  I  tell  you  that  unless  your  justice 
abound  more  than  that  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
you  shall  not  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven." 
The  rabbis  had  narrowed  men's  view;  Jesus  would 
widen  it  beyond  every  horizon.  He  would  go  to  the 
roots  of  life  and  fertilize  them  with  a  law  of  love,  to 
sanctify  not  only  our  conduct  but  our  thoughts,  our 
most  secret  motives. 

"  You  have  heard  that  it  was  said  to  them  of  old, 
Thou   shalt   not  kill;  and   whosoever   shall   kill  shall 
be  guilty  of  the  Judgment.     But  I  say  to  you 
that  whosoever  is  angry  with  his  brother  shall 
be  guilty  of  the  Judgment. ' '    Our  gentle  Sav-        «  Blessed  are  the  meek7 


238 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


iour  does  not  mean  that  quarrelsome  words  shall  be 
made  the  food  of  inextinguishable  fire — by  no  means. 
But  rather  that  the  lightest  expression  of  a  deadly  hate 
shall  be  punished  as  if  the  hater  had  actually  glutted 
himself  with  blood.  Guilt  is  of  the  heart,  not  of  the  lips 
or  hand — an  admonition  well-timed,  because  the  Jews  of 
that  day  hated  each  other  unto  frenzy.  He  bade  them 
leave  their  sacrifices  unfinished,  and 
1 '  go  and  be  reconciled  ' '  to  their 
enemies  first.  He  added  the  penalty 
of  refusal :  "Lest  perhaps  the  ad- 
versary deliver  thee  to  the  judge, 
and  the  judge  deliver  thee  to  the 
officer,  and  thou  be  cast  into  prison  ; 
amen  I  say  to  thee,  thou  shalt  not 
go  out  from  thence  till  thou  repay 
the  last  farthing."  Death  drags  the 
culprit  into  the  divine  court,  in 
which  even  a  wilful  aversion,  or  a 
harbored  dislike  against  our  neigh- 
bor, must  be  atoned  for  in  the 
cleansing  sorrows  of  purgatory. 

Now  follow  lessons  of  purity.  The 
Christian's  chastity  must  be  an  interior  quality  and 
adorn  his  very  soul :  ' (  You  have  heard  that  it  was  said 
to  them  of  old,  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery.  But  I 
say  to  you,  whosoever  shall  look  on  a  woman  to  lust 
after  her,  hath  already  committed  adultery  with  her 
in  his  heart."  The  antidote  against  inward  vice  is 
inward  hatred  of  its  occasions,  shown  by  the  surgeon's 
treatment  of  an  infected  member  of  the  body.  "And 
if  thy  right  eye  scandalize  thee,  pluck  it  out  and 
cast  it  from  thee."  How  truly  does  our  Saviour's  way 
agree  with  men's  experience,  which  teaches  that  in 
the  moral  order  fire  alone  can  fight  fire,  passionate 


OUR    SAVIOUR'S    CODE    OF     RECONCILIA- 
TION. 

You  have  heard  that  it  was  said  to  them 
of  old  :  Thou  shalt  not  kill.  And  whoso- 
ever shall  kill,  shall  be  in  danger  of  the 
judgment.  But  I  say  to  you,  that  who- 
soever is  angry  with  his  brother,  shall  be 
in  danger  of  the  judgment.  And  whoso- 
ever shall  say  to  his  brother,  Raca,  shall 
be  in  danger  of  the  council.  And  whoso- 
ever shall  say,  Thou  fool,  shall  be  in  dan- 
ger of  hell  fire.  If  therefore  thou  offer 
thy  gift  at  the  altar,  and  there  thou  re- 
member that  thy  brother  hath  anything 
against  thee  :  leave  there  thy  offering  be- 
fore the  altar,  and  go  first  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  thy  brother,  and  then  coming  thou 
shalt  offer  thy  gift.  Be  at  agreement  with 
thy  adversary  betimes,  whilst  thou  art  in 
the  way  with  him ;  lest  perhaps  the  ad- 
versary deliver  thee  to  the  judge,  and  the 
judge  deliver  thee  to  the  officer,  and  thou 
be  cast  into  prison.  Amen  I  say  to  thee, 
thou  shalt  not  go  out  from  thence  till  thou 
repay  the  last  farthing. 


OF  FORGIVENESS;  CHASTITY;  MARRIAGE. 


239 


indulgence  is  conquered  only  by 
passionate  hatred  of  sin  and  of  what- 
ever causes  it.  How  many  poor 
souls  have  admitted  the  wisdom  of  j 
this  holy  violence  only  when  it  was 
too  late  to  profit  by  it  ! 

The  Master  passes  from  the  sub- 
ject of  illicit  love  to  that  of  lawful 
marriage  :     the    right    of     divorce, 
yielded   originally  to  human  weak- 
ness, is  now  withdrawn  in  the  era  of 
strong  self-control.      "  I  say  to  you, 
that   whosoever  shall   put  away  his 
wife,  excepting  the  cause  of  fornica- 
tion,  maketli   her   to  commit    adul- 
tery, and  he   that   shall    marry  her  that  is   put  away 
committeth  adultery."     The  foul  crime  of  adultery 
justifies   separation.      But  does    it   permit    the   in- 
jured   party    to   marry   again?     Some    erroneously 
believe   so.     There  is    no  manner  of  permission  for 
it  in  these  words,  which  treat  only    of    the   guilty 
party.     Jesus    shall   return     again    to    this    critical 
subject  and  more    fully  establish   the    entire    indis- 
solubility  of    the  marriage    bond  —  almost   destroyed 
by    the    various    causes    for    total     divorce     intro- 
duced by  the  rabbis  in  addition  to  those  permitted 
by  Moses. 


CHASTITY    AS    AN    INTERIOR    VIRTUE. 

You  have  heard  that  it  was  said  to  them 
of  old  :  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery. 
But  I  say  to  you,  that  whosoever  shall 
look  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her,  hath 
already  committed  adultery  with  her  in  his 
heart.  And  if  thy  right  eye  scandalize 
thee,  pluck  it  out  and  cast  it  from  thee. 
For  it  is  expedient  for  thee  that  one  of  thy 
members  should  perish,  rather  than  thy 
whole  body  be  cast  into  hell.  And  if  thy 
right  hand  scandalize  thee,  cut  it  off,  and 
cast  it  from  thee  :  for  it  is  expedient  for 
thee  that  one  of  thy  members  should  perish, 
rather  than  that  thy  whole  body  go  into 
hell.  And  it  hath  been  said,  Whosoever 
shall  put  aivay  his  wife,  let  him  give  her  a 
bill  of  divorce.  But  I  say  to  you,  that 
whosoever  shall  put  away  his  wife,  ex- 
cepting the  cause  of  fornication,  maketh 
her  to  commit  adultery  :  and  he  that  shall 
marry  her  that  is  put  away,  committeth 
adultery. 


of  heart." 


240 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER   XXIII.— CONTINUED. 

3. — MODERATION   IN    SPEECH  ;    LOVE   OF    ENEMIES. 

ROFANE  and  idle  swearing  had  grown  to  be  a 
common  evil  among  the  Jews.  Jesus  would  re- 
prove it,  condemn  it,  remedy  it,  and  He  is  so 
strenuous  against  it  that  He  seems  to  suspend 
even  the  natural  right  of  taking  an  oath  for  grave  and 
just  reasons.  Especially  vain  oaths  and  vows  are 
wholly  condemned,  specimens  of  which  the  Master  gives. 
But  it  would  be  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  Lord 
totally  and  for  ever  prohibited  calling  God  to  witness  to 
the  truth  of  one's  assertions  on  solemn  occasions — 
something  wholly  lawful  when  done  with  proper  safe- 
guards. He  countenanced  lawful  oath-taking  when  at 
His  trial  He  answered  the  adjuration  of  the  High- 
Priest  ;  and  St.  Paul  more  than  once  strengthens  his 
teaching  by  calling  God  to  witness  its  truth.  Our  Lord 
strikes  at  the  excess,  not  at  the  reasonable  use  of  oaths. 
He  is,  besides,  a  foe  to  all  trickiness  of  speech  and 
of  manner,  equivocations  and  petty  deceptions.  He 
loves  the  candid,  open  character,  whose  every  sentence 
can  instantly  be  known  for  yes  or  no  as  to  the  matter 
in  hand.  The  Christian  should  be  above  conversa- 
tional duplicities  of  any  kind.  Frankness,  simplicity, 
directness  of  speech  are  character- 
istic of  Christ's  spirit  in  our  dealings 
with  each  other. 

Under  figures  of  speech,  a  style 
familiar  to  the  Orientals  whom  He 
addressed,  our  Saviour  again  en- 
forces the  holy  virtue  of  meekness. 
Practise  His  rule  to  the  very  letter, 
and  you  are  His  favorite  child  ;  but 
to  its  spirit,  at  least,  must  all  hold 


"LET     YOUR    SPEECH     BE    YEA,     YEA;    NO, 
NO." 

Again,  you  have  heard  that  it  was  said  to 
them  of  old,  Thou  shalt  not  forswear 
thyself :  but  thou  shalt  perjorm  thy  oaths 
to  the  Lord.  But  I  say  to  you  not  to  swear 
at  all,  neither  by  heaven,  for  it  is  the  throne 
of  God  :  nor  by  the  earth,  for  it  is  his 
footstool :  nor  by  Jerusalem,  for  it  is  the 
city  of  the  great  king.  Neither  shalt  thou 
swear  by  thy  head,  because  thou  canst  not 
make  one  hair  white  or  black.  But  let  y5uif. 
speech  be  yea,  yea ;  no,  no  :  and  that  whicn 
is  over  and  above  these  is  of  evil. 


MOD  ERA  TION  IN  SPEECH;  LO  VE  OF  ENEMIES.    241 

fast  in  the  quick  and  full  forgiveness  of  injuries.   "  You 
have   heard   that   it   hath   been   said:  An   eye   for  an 
eye,    a  tooth   for  a  tooth.     But   I  say   to   you  not   to 
resist  evil;  but  if  one  strike  thee  on  thy  right  cheek, 
turn   to   him  the   other  also.     And  if  a  man  contend 
with   thee   in  judgment   and  take   away  thy   coat,    let 
go   thy  cloak  also  unto   him."-   A    direct    disap- 
proval of    all    lawsuits,  except  those    maintained 
against  one's  will.* 

And  here  follow  words  of  renown.  When  the 
Son  of  God  roused  men's  souls  to  the  love  of  their 
enemies  His  power  surpassed  the  waking  of  the  dead. 
No  miracles  ever  drew  so  many  souls  to  the  true  re- 
ligion as  the  practice  of  this  virtue,  first  taught  man- 
kind by  Jesus,  put  into  His  prayer  on  the  Cross  for 
His  murderers,  and  always  uttered  by  Christian 
martyrs  for  their  executioners.  "  I  say  to  you,  love 
your  enemies,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you,  and 
pray  for  them  that  persecute  and  calumniate  you,  that 
you  may  be  the  children  of  your  Father  who  is  in 
Heaven,  who  maketh  His  sun  to  rise  upon  the  good 
and  bad,  and  raineth  upon  the  just  and  unjust." 
This,  He  claims,  is  the  peculiar  virtue  of  His  fol- 
lowers: "For  if  you  love  them  that  love  you,  what 
reward  shall  you  have  ?  do  not  even  the  publicans 

•'  is  perfect. 

this?" 

*  "  And  this  is  what  Jesus  so  often  inculcated  on  us  :  *  If  a  man  will 
contend  with  thee  in  judgment  and  take  away  thy  coat,  let  go  thy  cloak 
also  unto  him'  (Matt.  v.  40).  I  am  in  no  respect  superstitious,  and 
I  do  not  at  all  blame  those  who  do  go  to  law,  provided  that  it  is  in 
truth,  discretion,  and  justice  ;  but  I  say,  I  cry  out,  I  write,  and  if  need 
were  I  would  write  it  in  my  blood,  that  whoever  would  be  perfect,  and  al- 
together a  child  of  Jesus  Christ  crucified,  must  practise  this  doctrine  of  our 
Lord.  Let  the  world  murmur,  let  human  prudence  raise  its  eyebrows  in 
scorn,  as  it  pleases;  let  all  the  wise  ones  of  the  age  invent  as  many 
evasions,  pretexts,  and  excuses  as  they  will ;  this  word  is  to  be  preferred  to 
all  prudence  :  '  He  that  will  take  away  thy  coat,  let  go  thy  cloak  also 
unto  him  "  (Letters  of  St.  Francis  de  Sales). 


"  LOVE    YOUR    ENEMIES." 

You  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said  : 
An  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth. 
But  I  say  to  you  not  to  resist  evil :  but  if 
one  strike  thee  on  thy  right  cheek,  turn  to 
him  also  the  other.  And  if  a  man  will  con- 
tend with  thee  in  judgment  and  take  away 
thy  coat,  let  go  thy  cloak  also  unto  him. 
And  whosoever  will  force  thee  one  mile,  go 
with  him  other  two.  Give  to  him  that 
asketh  of  thee,  and  from  him  that  would 
borrow  of  thee  turn  not  away  ;  of  him  that 
taketh  away  thy  goods,  ask  them  not  again. 
You  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said, 
Thou  shall  lev;  thy  neighbor,  and  hate  thy 
enemy.  But  I  say  to  you,  Love  your  ene- 
mies, do  good  to  them  that  hate  you  :  and 
pray  for  them  that  persecute  and  calum- 
niate you  :  that  you  may  be  the  children 
of  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven,  who 
maketh  his  sun  to  rise  upon  the  good  and 
bad,  and  raineth  upon  the  just  and  the  un- 
just. For  if  you  love  them  that  love  you, 
what  reward  shall  you  have  ?  do  not  even 
the  publicans  this  ?  And  if  you  do  good  to 
them  who  do  good  to  you,  what  thanks  are 
to  you  ?  for  sinners  also  do  this.  And  if 
ye  lend  to  them  of  whom  ye  hope  to  receive, 
what  thanks  are  to  you  ?  for  sinners  also 
lend  to  sinners,  for  to  receive  as  much. 
Do  good,  and  lend,  hoping  for  nothing 
thereby  :  and  your  reward  shall  be  great, 
and  you  shall  be  the  sons  of  the  highest : 
for  he  is  kind  to  the  unthankful,  and  to  the 
evil.  And  if  you  salute  your  brethren  only, 
what  do  you  more  ?  do  not  also  the  heath- 
ens this  ?  Be  you  therefore  perfect,  as  also 
your  heavenly  Father  is  perfect.  Be  ye 
therefore  merciful,  as  your  Father  also  is 
merciful. 


LIFE  of  JESUS  CHXIST. 

*'  Be  you  therefore  perfect,  as 
also  your  heavenly  Father  is  per- 
fect." Who  after  this  can  exag- 
gerate the  dignity  of  man,  or  over- 
rate his  vocation  to  perfection  ? 
There  are,  no  doubt,  different  voca- 
tions of  souls,  some  called  to  a 
higher,  others  to  a  less  elevated 
grade  of  holiness.  But  all  thought 
of  grades  and  classes  and  states 
fades  away  as  we  mingle  with  our 
L,ord's  audience, — this  crowd  of  men 
and  women  and  children,  the  learn- 
ed scribe  and  the  dull  ploughman, 
the  chosen  twelve  and  the  unsifted 
many,  and  hear  Jesus  call  each  and 
all  of  them  to  be  heroes  of  God. 
L,et  us  always  bring  out  the  main 
thing  in  Jesus'  teaching:  God's 
perfection  of  love  is  every  man's 
standard.  I/et  us  emphasize  that 
as  common  property.  The  particu- 
lar inspirations  of  God's  Spirit  in 
the  individual  soul  will  take  care 
of  the  rest. 


OSTENTA  TION  IN  RELIGION. 


243 


CHAPTER  XXIII.— CONTINUED. 

4. — AGAINST  OSTENTATION  IN   RELIGION  ;    LESSONS  IN 
.    ,  •  PRAYER. 

OW  to  acquire  this  perfection,  how  to 
love  and  to  pray,  to  be  subject  and 
to  forgive — what  is  the  spirit  and  the 
method  of  such  holy  living  ?  Jesus 
keeps  on  with  His  instruction.  Having 
warned  us  against  shrinking  away  in 
nervous  timidity,  insisting  that  we  must 
be  worthy  children  of  God  our  Father,  He  now 
cautions  us  against  the  opposite  extreme  of  vain- 
glory:  "Take  heed  that  you  do  not  your  justice 
before  men  to  be  seen  of  them,  otherwise  you  shall 
not  have  a  reward  of  your  Father  who  is  in  Heaven. 
When  thou  dost  an  alms,  let  not  thy  left  hand  know 
what  thy  right  hand  doth,  that  thy  alms  may  be  in 
secret,  and  thy  Father  who  seeth  in  secret  will  re- 
pay thee." 

Ostentation  is  not  edification.  If  one's  office  calls 
for  good  example,  publicity  in  well-doing  is  in  the 
line  of  duty  ;  the  same  also  in  private  station,  when 
Providence  points  that  way.  But  the  inner  service 
is  the  essential  one,  and  that  must  be  for  God's  eye 
only.  Form  your  intention  for  God  alone,  however 
you  may  shape  your  conduct  for  men's  behoof. 

The  same  test  applies  in  prayer.     Family  prayer,  •'  \ 
presence  at   public  worship,  membership   in  devout 
societies,    are   very   praiseworthy,  placing  the  light 
on  the  candlestick  for  the  sake  of  the  whole  house 
of  God.     Yet  the  true  Christianrs  spirit  has  its  in- 
ner shrine  :   ' '  When  thou  shalt  pray  enter  into  thy    u  pra  to  th  Fath 
chamber,    and  having   shut  the   door,  pray   to  thy        ^secret"  * 


244 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Father  in  secret,  and  thy  Father  who  seeth  in  secret 
will  repay  thee."  Here  follows  an  admonition  direct- 
ed to  those  who  would  calculate  their  worthiness  in  the 
way  that  men  balance  account  books,  and  expect  merit 
according  to  arithmetical  computation :  * '  And  when 
you  are  praying,  speak  not  much,  as  the  heathens; 
for  they  think  that  in  their  much  speaking  they 
HypocriteJTwho love  may  be  heard."  Hence  the  true  prayer  is  not  rated 
theStacomaenrs  Po?ythe  b>"  the  time  occupied  or  the  number  of  words  recited, 
street,  but  by  reverent  fear  of.  God,  by  loving  submission, 

by  entire  confidence.  The  outer 
part  should  be  characterized  by  the 
inner.  Formalism  is  a  constant  dan- 
ger, and  some  whose  lips  are  full  of 
prayer,  are  really  prayerless  in  soul. 
Yet  our  Saviour  is  by  no  means 
opposed  to  stated  forms  of  prayer, 
for  He  immediately  gives  us  one,  the 
Lord's  Prayer.  No  reasonable  man 
lives  but  he  orders  his  life  ;  no  true 
Christian  prays  but  he  has  his  set 
forms  of  prayer,  the  supreme  one 
being  now  instituted.  No  prayer  so 
perfect  as  this  one,  none  less  liable 
to  formalism  in  its  constant  repeti- 
tion, none  so  true  a  cure-all  for  hu- 
man affliction — a  very  sacrament  of 
prayer.  Many  books  have  been 
written  to  explain  it,  and  yet  every- 
body can  understand  it.  It  is  the 
first  prayer  taught  the  Christian 
child  after  the  sign-prayer  of  the 
Cross,  it  is  the  last  one  forgotten 
by  the  Christian  sinner ;  it  is  pub- 
licly uttered  in  the  most  solemn 


HOW    TO   PRACTISE    VIRTUE    AND   HOW   TO 
PRAY. 

Take  heed  that  you  do  not  your  justice 
before  men,  to  be  seen  by  them  :  otherwise 
you  shall  not  have  a  reward  of  your  Father 
who  is  in  heaven.  Therefore  when  thou 
dost  an  alms-deeds,  sound  not  a  trumpet 
before  thee,  as  the  hypocrites  do  in  the 
synagogues  and  in  the  streets,  that  they 
may  be  honored  by  men.  Amen  I  say  to 
you,  they  have  received  their  reward.  But 
when  thou  dost  alms,  let  not  thy  left  hand 
know  what  thy  right  hand  doth  :  that  thy 
alms  may  be  in  secret,  and  thy  Father  who 
seeth  in  secret  will  repay  thee.  And  when 
ye  pray,  you  shall  not  be  as  the  hypocrites, 
that  love  to  stand  and  pray  in  the  syna- 
gogues and  corners  of  the  streets,  that  they 
may  be  seen  by  men  :  Amen  I  say  to  you, 
they  have  received  their  reward.  But  thou 
when  thou  shall  pray,  enter  into  thy  cham- 
ber, and  having  shut  the  door,  pray  to  thy 
Father  in  secret :  and  thy  Father  who  seeth 
in  secret  will  repay  thee.  And  when  you 
are  praying,  speak  not  much,  as  the  hea- 
thens. For  they  think  that  in  their  much 
speaking  they  may  be  heard.  Be  not  you 
therefore  like  to  them,  for  your  Father 
knoweth  what  is  needful  for  you,  before 
you  ask  him.  Thus  therefore  shall  you 
pray  :  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  hal- 
lowed be  thy  name :  thy  kingdom  come. 
Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  i  s  in  heaven. 
Give  us  this  day  oursupersubstantial  bread. 
And  forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  also  for- 
give our  debtors.  And  lead  us  not  into 
temptation.  But  deliver  us  from  evil. 
Amen.  For  if  you  will  forgive  men  their 
offences,  your  heavenly  Father  will  forgive 
you  also  your  offences.  But  if  you  will  not 
forgive  men,  neither  will  your  Father  for- 
give you  your  offences. 


TRUST  IN  GOD'S  PRO  VIDENCE.  245 

part  of  the  Christian  Sacrifice.  Many  ages  it  has 
been  universally  offered  to  God  as  the  first  and  final 
expression  of  allegiance  to  Him  and  affection  for 
our  neighbor,  and  yet  no  one  has  dreamed  that  the 
Lord's  prayer  is  worn  out  or  can  be  superseded.  He 
teaches  it  again  and  again,  and  we  shall  return  to  its 
consideration  later  on. 


"They  think  that  in  their  much  speaking  they  may  be  heard." 

CHAPTER  XXIII.— CONTINUED. 

5. — REUGIOUS  JOY;    TRUST  IN   GOD'S   PROVIDENCE. 

AFTERWARDS  Jesus  gives  a  needed  lesson  about 
a  misery  unhappily  and  yet  truly  named  religious 
gloom.  Joy  is  the  dominant  note  of  all  friendship, 
most  especially  of  that  friendship  which  unites  us  to 
God — religion.  Yet  men,  because  they  are  sinners 
and  must  make  atonement,  are  prone  to  gloom  in  re- 
ligion. Jesus  is  against  this:  "And  when  you  fast 
be  not  as  the  hypocrites,  sad ;  for  they  disfigure  their 
faces,  that  they  may  appear  unto  men  to  fast.  Amen 
I  say  to  you,  they  have  received  their  reward.  But 
thou,  when  thou  fastest,  anoint  thy  head  and  wash 
thy  face,  that  thou  appear  not  to  men  to  fast,  but 
to  thy  Father  who  is  in  secret,  and  thy  Father  who 
seeth  in  secret  will  repay  thee."  The  reader  will  not 
fail  to  notice  that  our  Saviour's  warning  against 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

melancholy  is  joined  with  his  con- 
demnation of  ostentation  and  vain- 
glory in  our  religious  demeanor,  for 
it  often  happens  that  a  gloomy  Chris- 
tian is  over-anxious  for  men's  ap- 
proval. 

He  frequently  returned  to  the 
lesson  of  confidence  in  God.  Who- 
ever knows  what  religious  men  call 
The  World,  knows  how  hardly  it 
deals  with  its  votaries  ;  also  how 
doubly  miserable  are  those  who  look 
to  it  for  happiness.  One  of  the  most 
blessed  favors  Jesus  bestows  on  us  is 
emancipation  from  the  world.  Eat- 
ing and  drinking,  lodging  and  cloth- 
ing— all  are  necessary,  but  they  come 
from  God  our  Father :  such  is  the 
doctrine  of  Christ.  Let  us  always 
bear  Him  in  mind,  always  remember 
our  eternal  destiny  as  His  well-lov- 
ed children :  He  will  not  fail  us. 
Does  He  fail  the  beasts  and  the  birds 
and  the  flowers  and  fruits  ?  Can  He 
think  less  of  us,  His  children,  des- 
tined for  His  company  in  Paradise, 
than  He  does  of  these  senseless 
things?  Hence  this  charming  dis- 
course on  Confidence  in  God.  It 
was  delivered  in  a  country  place,  the 
Master  looking  out  over  the  fields 
and  hedges,  holding  in  His  hand, 
we  may  suppose,  a  bunch  of  wild  flowers,  the  offering 
of  the  children  who  were  ever  His  favorites  and  were 
frequently  in  His  company. 


"  BE    NOT    SOLICITOUS  I  " 

Fear  not,  little  flock,  for  it  hath  pleased 
your  Father  to  give  you  a  kingdom.  Sell 
what  you  possess  and  give  alms.  Lay  not 
up  to  yourselves  treasures  on  earth  :  where 
the  rust  and  moth  consume,  and  where 
thieves  break  through,  and  steal.  But  lay 
up  to  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven  :  where 
neither  the  rust  nor  moth  doth  consume, 
and  where  thieves  do  not  break  through, 
nor  steal.  For  where  thy  treasure  is,  there 
is  thy  heart  also.  The  light  of  thy  body  is 
thy  eye.  If  thy  eye  be  single  thy  whole 
body  shall  be  lightsome.  But  if  thy  eye 
be  evil  thy  whole  body  shall  be  darksome. 
If  then  the  light  that  is  in  thee,  be  dark- 
ness :  the  darkness  itself  how  great  shall  it 
be  ?  No  man  can  serve  two  masters.  For 
either  he  will  hate  the  one,  and  love  the 
other :  or  he  will  sustain  the  one,  and  de- 
spise the  other.  You  cannot  serve  God 
and  mammon.  Therefore  I  say  to  you, 
be  not  solicitous  for  your  life,  what  you 
shall  eat,  nor  for  your  body,  what  you  shall 
put  on.  Is  not  the  life  more  than  the  meat : 
and  the  body  more  than  the  raiment  ?  Be- 
hold the  birds  of  the  air,  for  they  neither 
sow,  nor  do  they  reap,  nor  gather  into 
barns:  and  your  heavenly  Father  feedeth 
them.  Are  not  you  of  much  more  value 
than  they  ?  And  which  of  you  by  taking 
thought,  can  add  to  his  stature  one  cubit  ? 
And  for  raiment  why  are  you  solicitous  ? 
Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field  how  they 
grow  :  they  labor  not,  neither  do  they  spin. 
But  I  say  to  you,  that  not  even  Solomon  in 
all  his  glory  was  arrayed  as  one  of  these. 
And  if  the  grass  of  the  field,  which  is  to- 
day, and  to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  oven, 
God  doth  so  clothe  :  how  much  more  you, 
O  ye  of  little  faith  ?  Be  not  solicitous  there- 
fore, saying :  What  shall  we  eat,  or  what 
shall  we  drink,  or  wherewith  shall  we  be 
clothed  ?  For  after  all  these  things  do  the 
heathens  seek.  For  your  Father  knoweth 
that  you  have  need  of  all  these  things. 
And  be  not  lifted  up  on  high.  Seek  ye 
therefore  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  his 
justice,  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added 
unto  you.  Be  not  therefore  solicitous  for 
to-morrow  ;  for  the  morrow  will  be  solici- 
tous for  itself.  Sufficient  for  the  day  is  the 
evil  thereof. 


TRUST  IN  GOD'S  PROVIDENCE. 


247 


When  reduced  to  its  most  elementary  terms,  this 
teaching  means  that  although  we  must  strive  earnestly 
for  the  bodily  support  of  ourselves  and  those  de- 
pendent on  us,  we  should  strive  yet  more  earnestly  for 
the  power  to  suffer  want  unrepiningly.  No  man 
worthily  enjoys  the  temporal  gifts  of  God  who  cannot 
be  content  without  them.  Our  only  absorbing  desire 
must  be  for  the  Kingdom  of  God,  which  is  not  in 
eating  and  drinking.  So  far  all  must  be  conformed 
to  this  doctrine.  What  goes  beyond  this  is  for  the 
smaller  number.  "  Sell  what  you  possess  and  give 
alms."  It  is  the  Gospel  Counsel  of  Poverty.  It  is 
not  a  command  but  a  special  call  to  perfection.  In 
its  spirit  of  detachment  it  bears,  indeed,  upon  all. 
But  in  its  literal  fulfilment,  the  counsel  of  Evangelical 
Poverty  is  for  those  alone  whose  souls  are  led  to  it 
by  special  illumination  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

In  all  this  the  Master  draws  a  dividing  line  between 
the  worldly-minded  Christian  and  the  true-hearted 
disciple.  The  purpose  of  God  in  sending  His  Son  on 
earth  was  not  to  bring  temporal  prosperity  to  those 
who  should  respond  to  His  message,  but  very  often 
the  contrary.  Jesus  Himself  was  a  poor  man  ;  His 
mother  and  His  foster-father  were  poor ;  His  disciples 
were  poor ;  His  friends  and  followers  in  all  ages, 
though  drawn  from  all  classes,  poor  and  rich,  mighty 
and  lowly,  have  ever  been  and  must  ever  be  poor  in 
spirit.  But  His  Church  always  loves  by  preference 
actually  and  literally  poor  people.  Her  saintly  heroes 
are  all  poor  men  and  women,  and  in  the  vast  majority 
of  her  membership  she  honors  poverty  and  ministers 
to  it.  She  is  distinctively  the  poor  man's  Church. 

Members  of  the  Church  have  indeed  for  a  time  lost 
some  portion  of  this  spirit,  but  it  was  because  they 
had  fallen  into  degeneracy ;  a  condition  in  which 


'•  Consider  tlw 
lilies." 


248  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

high  offices  were  reserved  for  the  rich  and  policy 
was  shaped  by  worldly  ends.  But  this  was  always 
the  beginning  of  the  ruin  of  religion  ;  as  at  the  divi- 
sion of  Christendom  three  hundred  years  ago,  and 
the  French  Revolution  two  centuries  later.  To  be 
penetrated  by  Christ's  Counsel  of  Poverty  and  domi- 
nated by  its  spirit  is  a  prerequisite  for  maintaining 
the  allegiance  of  men  and  nations  to  Christian  unity 
and  orthodoxy. 

CHAPTER  XXIII.— CONTINUED. 

6. — THE  RULE  OF  FRATERNAL  CHARITY  J  THE  EFFI- 
CACY OF  PRAYER. 

ONE  of  the  worst  consequences  of  the  fall  of  man 
is  the  inordinate  tendency  we  feel  to  sit  in  judgment 
upon  our  equals.  Although  himself 
inevitably  a  sinner,  each  man  is  irre- 
sistibly bent  on  playing  the  censor  of 
his  neighbor.  Against  no  other 
fault  does  our  Saviour  so  often  ad- 
monish us.  "Judge  not,  that  you 
may  not  be  judged ;  for  with  what 
judgment  you  judge,  you  shall  be 
judged,  and  with  what  measure  you 
mete,  it  shall  be  measured  to  you 
again.  And  why  seest  thou  the 
mote  that  is  in  thy  brother's  eye,  and 
seest  not  the  beam  that  is  in  thy 
own  eye  ?  "  How  true  it  is  that  our 
little  store  of  personal  virtue  is  often 
the  stimulus  to  excessive  zeal  for  the 
correction  of  our  neighbor.  Censo- 
riousness  is  want  of  balance  between  personal  virtue  and 
zeal  for  correction,  unless,  indeed,  it  happens  that  correc 
tion  is  imposed  by  one's  office.  Our  Saviour  threatens 


THE    MOTE    AND    THE    BEAM, 

Judge  not,  that  you  may  not  be  judged. 
For  with  what  judgment  you  judge,  you 
shall  be  judged  :  and  with  what  measure 
you  mete,  it  shall  be  measured  to  you 
again.  Good  measure,  and  pressed  down 
and  shaken  together  and  running  over, 
shall  be  given  into  your  bosom.  And  he 
spoke  also  to  them  a  similitude  :  Can  the 
blind  lead  the  blind  ?  do  they  not  both 
fall  into  the  ditch  ?  The  disciple  is  not 
above  his  master  :  but  every  one  shall  be 
perfect,  if  he  be  as  his  master.  And  why 
seest  thou  the  mote  that  is  in  thy  brother's 
eye ;  and  seest  not  the  beam  that  is  in 
thy  own  eye  ?  Or  how  sayest  thou  to  thy 
brother :  Let  me  cast  the  mote  out  of 
thy  eye  ;  and  behold  a  beam  is  in  thy  own 
eye  ?  Thou  hypocrite,  cast  out  first  the 
beam  out  of  thy  own  eye,  and  then  shalt 
thou  see  to  cast  out  the  mote  out  of  thy 
brother's  eye.  Give  not  that  which  is  holy 
to  dogs  ;  neither  cast  ye  your  pearls  before 
swine,  lest  perhaps  they  trample  them  un- 
der their  feet,  and  turning  upon  you,  they 
tear  you. 


"  ASK,   AND  IT  SHALL  BE  GIVEN  YOU." 

Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you  :  seek, 
and  you  shall  find  :  knock,  and  it  shall  be 
opened  to  you.  For  every  one  that  ask- 
eth,  receiveth  :  and  he  that  seeketh,  find- 
eth  :  and  to  him  that  knocketh,  it  shall  be 
opened.  Or  what  man  is  there  among  you, 
of  whom  if  his  son  shall  ask  bread,  will 
he  reach  him  a  stone  ?  Or  if  he  shall 
ask  him  a  fish,  will  he  reach  him  a  ser- 
pent ^  If  you  then  being  evil,  know  how 
to  give  good  gifts  to  your  children,  how 
much  more  will  your  Father  who  is  in 
heaven  give  good  gifts  to  them  that  ask 
him. 


their    feet,    and 


FRA  TERNAL  CHARITY;  PRA  YER.  249 

the  terrible  penalty  of  retaliation: 
God  will  judge  the  judger  by  his  own 
usurped  rule  of  judging  his  neighbor. 

Naturally  Jesus  follows  on  to  a 
warning  against  the  other  extreme^ 
that  of  wasting  our  true  and  affec- 
tionate zeal  upon  those  who  are  total- 
ly incapable  of  profiting  by  it :  * '  Give 
not  that  which  is  holy  to  dogs,  neither 
cast  ye  your  pearls  before  swine,  lest 
perhaps  they  trample  them  under 
turning  upon  you,  they  tear  you." 

Upon  which  He  returns  to  the  efficacy  of  prayer, 
and  six  different  times  in  succession  (as  if  the  incredi- 
ble revelation  could  not  be  too  emphatically  taught) 
He  repeats  one  of  His  most  marvellous  promises: 
"Ask,  audit  shall  be  given  to  you;  seek,  and  you 
shall  find  ;  knock,  and  it  shall  be 
opened  to  you.  For  every  one 
that  asketh,  receiveth ;  and  he  that 
seeketh,  findeth,  and  to  him  that 
knocketh,  it  shall  be  opened." 
But,  we  may  inquire,  what  is  here 
referred  to — what  gift,  what  lost 
treasure,  what  door  is  meant? 
Many  a  one  asks  for  deliverance 
from  affliction,  little  knowing  that 
it  is  placed  as  a  condition  of  his 
salvation.  Some  would  save  a 
child  from  death,  little  under- 
standing the  future  downfall  if  the 
child  grows  to  manhood.  Some, 
again,  are  incessantly  striving  to 
substitute  daily  and  petty  miracles 
for  the  ordinary  providence  of  the 


**  Good  measure,  pressed  down,  shaken  to- 
gether, and  running  over." 


250 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Heavenly  Father.  Hence  in  every  prayer  for  temporal 
favors  or  for  spiritual  luxuries,  our  lyord  would  have 
us  wholly  submissive  to  the  good  pleasure  of  the  Father. 
Only  one  prayer  can  and  must  be  peremptory — that  for 
the  salvation  of  the  soul  and  the  necessary  means  of 
securing  it.  "Or  what  man  is  there  among  you,  of  whom 
if  his  son  shall  ask  bread,  will  he  reach  him  a  stone?  " 


«» Enter  ye  in  at  the 
narrow  gate." 


CHAPTER  XXIII.— CONCLUDED. 

7. — THE  GOLDEN  RULE. — THE  NARROW  AND   THE 
BROAD  WAY. — FALSE  PROPHETS. 

THEN  follows  the  Golden  Rule,  the  brief  summary 
of  all  religious  relationship  between  man  and  man — 
a  most  heroic  rule,  all  the  more  because  so  simple, 
so  accessible,  so  practical.  As  a  commentary  on  it 
one  would  be  justified  in  offering  the  entire  body  of 
Christian  teaching:  "  All  things  therefore  whatso- 
ever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  you 
also  to  them,  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets." 
If  this  seems  to  narrow  the  empire  of  self-will  down 
to  painful  self-forgetfulness,  well  and  good,  let  it  be 
so  ;  but  consider  what  it  leads  to,  all  the  more  quickly 
and  directly  because  so  painfully  strait.  "Enter  ye 
in  at  the  narrow  gate,  for  wide  is  the  gate  and  broad 
is  the  way  that  leadeth  to  destruction,  and  many  there 
are  that  go  in  thereat.  How  narrow  is  the  gate 
and  strait  is  the  way  that  leadeth  to 
life,  and  few  there  are  that  find  it !  " 
It  is  not  in  loitering  through  wide 
and  level  plains  full  of  flowers  and 
pleasant  groves  that  the  limbs  are 
developed  and  the  lungs  enlarged, 
but  in  climbing  steep  paths  and  con- 
quering rocky  heights.  So  by  self- 


THE    GOLDEN    RULE. 

All  things  therefore  whatsoever  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  you  also 
to  them,  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  pro- 
phets. Enter  ye  in  at  the  narrow  gate, 
for  wide  is  the  gate  and  broad  is  the  way 
that  leadeth  to  destruction,  and  many 
there  are  who  go  in  thereat.  How  nar- 
row is  the  gate  and  strait  is  the  way 
that  leadeth  to  life,  and  few  there  are  that 
find  it. 


THE  GOLDEN  RULE.— FALSE  PROPHETS. 


251 


conquest  alone  may  one  grow  to  be  a  stalwart  disciple 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

Not  only  are  these  principles  to  be  put  into  prac- 
tice by  Christ's  followers  generally, .  but  especially  so 
by  Christian  teachers.  The-  people  were  to  watch 
whether  or  not  a  teacher  of  new  theories  offered 
evidence  of  a  practical  sort :  '  *  Beware  of  false  pro- 
phets, who  come  to  you  in  the  clothing  of  sheep, 
but  inwardly  they  are  ravening  wolves.  By  their 
fruits  you  shall  know  them."  A  fatal  test  if  applied 
to  ritualistic  Judaism,  an  axe  at  its  very  root.  For, 
instead  of  love  and  harmony  and  inner  spiritual  life, 
its  fruits  were  hatred  and  contention  among  brethren 
and  formalism  in  religious  worship. 

Jesus  thus  ended  His  great  discourse.  The  simple 
beauty  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  outshines  the 
masterpieces  of  orators  as  the  noon-day  sun  a  penny 
candle.  Its  precepts  and  its  counsels  are  the  essence 
of  the  New  L,aw,  a  law  of  love  for  God  and  man, 
a  system  of  precepts  and  counsels  rightly  called  by 
St.  James  the  "perfect  law  of  liberty."  The  Gospel, 
epitomized  in  this  Sermon,  is  a  code  whose  majesty 
of  authority  and  whose  stimulus  to  personal  liberty 
are  inextricably  blended.  The  concluding  words  are 
a  direct  claim  on  Jesus'  part  to  be  the  Divine 
Legislator  Himself — this  New  L,aw  is  His  word. 
Coupled  with  this  is  His  preference  of  a  virtuous 
life — built  on  His  teaching  as  a  house  on  a  rock — 
over  even  supernatural  gifts.  On  the  contrary,  a  life 
of  outward  profession  and  even  of  inward  belief  but 
fruitless  of  inward  and  outward  charity,  is  like  a 
splendid  building  badly  founded — the  crevices  that 
gape  in  its  walls  from  top  to  bottom  and  the  threaten- 
ing lean  of  its  towers  turn  into  mockery  its  rich 
materials  and  its  graceful  adornments.  * '  Not  every 


Strait  is  the  way 
that  leadeth  to 
life." 


252 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


"BY  THEIR  FRUITS  YOU  SHALL  KNOW 
THEM." 

Beware  of  false  prophets,  who  come  to 
you  in  the  clothing  of  sheep,  but  inwardly 
they  are  ravening  wolves.  By  their  fruits 
you  shall  know  them.  Do  men  gather 
grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles  ? 
Even  so  every  good  tree  bringeth  forth 
good  fruit,  and  the  evil  tree  bringeth  forth 
evil  fruit.  A  good  tree  cannot  bring  forth 
evil  fruit,  neither  can  an  evil  tree  bring 
forth  good  fruit.  Every  tree  that  bring- 
eth not  forth  good  fruit,  shall  be  cut  down 
and  shall  be  cast  into  the  fire.  Wherefore 
by  their  fruits  you  shall  know  them.  A 
good  man  out  of  the  good  treasure  of  his 
heart  bringeth  forth  that  which  is  good  : 
and  an  evil  man  out  of  the  evil  treasure 
bringeth  forth  that  which  is  evil.  For  out 
of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth 
speaketh.  Not  every  one  that  saith  to 
me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  ;  but  he  that  doth  the 
will  of  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven,  he 
shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
Many  will  say  to  me  in  that  day:  Lord, 
Lord,  have  not  we  prophesied  in  thy 
name,  and  cast  out  devils  in  thy  name, 
and  done  many  miracles  in  thy  name  ? 
And  then  will  I  profess  unto  them,  I 
never  knew  you  :  depart  from  me,  you 
that  work  iniquity.  Every  one  therefore 
that  heareth  these  my  words,  and  doeth 
them,  shall  be  likened  to  a  wise  man 
who  digged  deep  and  built  his  house 
upon  a  rock.  And  the  rain  fell,  and  the 
floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and 
they  beat  upon  that  house,  and  it  fell  not, 
for  it  was  founded  on  a  rock.  And  every 
one  that  heareth  these  my  words,  and  doth 
them  not,  shall  be  like  a  foolish  man 
tha*  built  his  house  upon  the  sand  with- 
out a  foundation.  And  the  rain  fell,  and 
the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and 
they  beat  upon  that  house,  and  immediate- 
ly it  fell,  and  great  was  the  fall  thereof. 
And  it  came  to  pass  when  Jesus  had  fully 
ended  these  words,  the  people  were  in 
admiration  at  his  doctrine.  For  he  was 
teaching  them  as  one  having  power,  and 
not  as  their  scribes  and  Pharisees.  And 
when  he  was  come  down  from  the  moun- 
tain great  multitudes  followed  him. 


one  that  saith  to  me,  Lord  !  Lord  \ 
shall  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  but  he  that  doth  the  wiH 
of  my  Father  who  is  in  Heaven,  he 
shall  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven."  "  Every  one,  therefore, 
that  heareth  these  My  words  and 
doeth  them,  shall  be  likened  to  a 
wise  man  that  built  his  house  upon 
a  rock.  And  the  rain  fell,  and  the 
floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew, 
and  they  beat  upon  that  house,  and 
it  fell  not,  for  it  was  founded  upon 
a  rock." 

Who  but  the  equal  of  God  could 
so  loftily  speak  of  His  own  words  ? 
What  wonder,  then,  that  with  all 
His  mildness,  it  was  His  awful  dig- 
nity that  gave  the  final  echo  of  His 
discourse  in  the  minds  of  His  hear- 
ers. The  Pharisees  laid  particular 
claim  to  authority.  Compared  with 
Jesus,  authority  was  the  conspicuous 
lack  in  all  their  teaching.  He  alone 
could  say,  My  Words  are  stronger 
than  the  storms  of  life  and  death,  and 
are  the  immovable  and  eternal  basis 
of  all  joy.  "And  it  came  to  pass 
when  Jesus  had  fully  ended  these 
words,  the  people  were  in  admiration 
at  His  doctrine  ;  for  He  was  teach- 
ing them  as  one  having  power,  and 


not  as  their  Scribes  and  Pharisees." 
So  ended  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 


HEALING  THE  CENTURION'S  SERVANT. 


253 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

HE  AUNG    THE    CENTURION'S     SERVANT. — THE    TWO 
BUND   MEN. — THE   DUMB.  DEVII,. 

Matt.   viii.  5—i3>  and  ix.  27-34. ;  Mark  Hi.   20-22  ; 
Luke  vii.  i-io. 


' '  HE  loveth  our  nation  and  hath 
gogue."  This  praise  of  an  upright 
turion  was  spoken  to  Jesus  upon  His 
return  to  Capharnaum  by  a  deputa- 
tion of  Jewish  elders.  Their  errand 
was  to  beg  Jesus  to  cure  the  Roman 
officer's  servant.  This  was  a  favor- 
ite and  well-loved  dependent  of  his 
master,  whose  heart  was  heavy  with 
fear  of  his  impending  death.  So 
was  the  heart  of  our  Saviour  very 
tender  towards  that  imperial  race 
which  was  to  know  Him  as  its  only 
master,  and  to  give  its  name  to  His 
Church  in  abdicating  in  its  favor  the 
empire  of  the  world.  Jesus  gladly 
went  with  the  elders.  The  Roman 
united  to  the  high  quality  of  relig- 
ious generosity  that  of  personal  hu- 
mility. He  sent  another  message, 
as  he  saw  the  approach  of  the  mul- 
titude, and  his  message  has  become 
the  world-wide  expression  of  humble 
confidence  upon  the  lips  of  Chris- 
tians when  receiving  Jesus  in  Com- 
munion. It  is  the  Domine,  non  sum 
dignus :  "Lord,  trouble  not  Thy- 
self, for  I  am  not  worthy  that  Thou 
shou!4st  enter  under  my  roof.  For 


built  us  a  syna- 
and  kindly  cen- 


"LORD,    I    AM   NOT    WORTHY    THAT     THOU 
SHOULDST   ENTER    UNDER   MY   ROOF." 

And  when  he  had  finished  all  his  words 
in  the  hearing  of  the  people,  he  entered 
into  Capharnaum.  The  servant  of  a  certain 
centurion,  who  was  dear  to  him,  being 
sick,  was  ready  to  die.  And  when  he 
had  heard  of  Jesus  he  sent  to  him  the 
ancients  of  the  Jews,  desiring  him  to  come 
and  heal  his  servant.  And  when  they 
came  to  Jesus  they  besought  him  earnest- 
ly, saying  to  him:  He  is  worthy  that 
thou  shouldst  do  this  for  him,  for  he 
loveth  our  nation  and  he  hath  built  us  a 
synagogue.  And  Jesus  went  with  them. 
And  when  he  was  now  not  far  from  the 
house,  the  centurion  sent  his  friends  to 
him,  saying:  Lord,  trouble  not  thyself, 
for  I  am  not  worthy  that  thou  shouldst 
enter  under  my  roof.  For  which  cause 
neither  did  I  think  myself  worthy  to  come 
to  thee  :  but  say  the  word  and  my  servant 
shall  be  healed.  For  I  also  am  a  man 
subject  to  authority,  having  under  me 
soldiers ;  and  I  say  to  one :  Go !  and  he 
goeth ;  and  to  another :  Come  !  and  he 
cometh  ;  and  to  my  servant :  Do  this  !  and 
he  doth  it.  Which  Jesus  hearing,  mar- 
velled, and  turning  about  to  the  multitude 
that  followed  him,  he  said  :  Amen  I  say 
to  you,  I  have  not  found  so  great  faith 
not  even  in  Israel.  And  I  say  to  you  that 
many  shall  come  from  the  east  and  the 
west,  and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham, 
and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  But  the  children  of  the  kingdom 
shall  be  cast  out  into  the  exterior  dark- 
ness :  there  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing 
of  teeth.  And  Jesus  said  to  the  centurion  : 
Go,  and  as  thou  hast  believed,  so  be  it 
done  to  thee.  And  the  servant  was  healed 
at  the  same  hour.  And  they  who  were 
sent,  being  returned  to  the  house,  found 
the  servant  whole,  who  had  been  sick. 


254  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

which  cause  neither  did  I  think  myself  worthy  to  come 
to  Thee:  but  say  the  word,  and  my  servant  shall  be 
healed."  The  great-hearted  Roman  was  a  soldier.  His 
symbol  of  power  was  the  word  of  command.  Many  a 
time  had  he  taken  his  life  in  his  hand  at  a  single  word 
of  his  superior  officer,  as  he  in  turn  had  seen  his 
legionaries  do  at  his  own  behest.  He  would  remind 
Jesus  of  this,  his  knowledge  of  the  force  of  lawful 
authority:  "For  I  also  am  a  man  subject  to  author- 
ity, having  under  me  soldiers.  And  I  say  to  one,  Go  ! 
and  he  goeth  ;  and  to  another,  Come  !  and  he  cometh ; 
and  to  my  servant,  Do  this !  and  he  doth  it. ' '  What 
a  lesson  was  this  to  the  proud  Jewish  elders,  who, 
vain  of  their  elect  place,  dealt  almost  on  terms  of 
equality  with  the  prophets,  and  added  to  and  dis- 
torted the  precepts  of  the  law  of  God ;  whereas,  this 
representative  of  the  Gentile  world  thought  Jesus  too 
high  a  personage  to  be  invited  to  enter  his  home.  It 
was  humility  and  frankness,  but  especially  faith,  that 
Roman  virtue  which  should  become  the  synonym  of 
intellectual  security  of  human  reason  in  the  ages  to 
come — the  new  Pax  Romana. 

Naturally,  a  Roman  would  admire  first  the  sover- 
eign majesty  of  the  Saviour;  but  his  joining  to 
this  the  holy  virtue  of  humility  was  very  pleasing  to 
Jesus,  who  foresaw  the  future  supremacy  of  the 
Gentile  races  in  His  religion,  and  made  haste  to 
speak  of  it:  "Turning  about  to  the  multitude 
who  followed  Him,  He  said  :  Amen  I  say  to 
you,  I  have  not  found  so  great  faith,  not  even 
in  Israel.  And  I  say  to  you  that  many  shall  come 
from  the  east  and  the  west,  and  shall  sit  down 
with  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob  in  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven.  But  the  children  of  the  king- 
dom shall  be  cast  out  into  the  exterior  darkness : 


THE  BLIND  MEN;  THE  DUMB  DEVIL.  25$ 

there  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of 
teeth."  This  is  a  proclamation  of  that  high- 
er law  of  heritage  which  is  spiritual,  not 
racial,  nor  even  of  sacred  rites  and  sacrifices, 
but  of  the  new  birth  of  the  inner  man.  A 
voice  would  yet .  resound  in  echo  of  this 
teaching,  a  clarion  voice,  going  everywhere 
and  saying,  "  There  is  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  nor  bond  nor  free,  nor  male  nor  fe- 
male, but  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus." 
Not  by  right  of  birth  but  by  faith  and  love 
shall  men  be  citizens  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
"  And  Jesus  said,  Go,  and  as  thou  hast  be- 
lieved, so  be  it  done  to  thee.  And  the 
servant  was  healed  at  the  same  hour." 

On  the  way  to  His  resting-place  for  the 
night  two  blind  men  followed  Jesus,  crying : 
out  "Have  mercy  on  us,  O  Son  of  David !  " 
Jesus  did  not  stop  :  was  it  to  try  their  faith? 
or  was  it  lest  that  royal  title,  Son  of  David, 
might  be  caught  up  by  the  fiery  Jews 
and  turned  into  a  war-cry?  But  His  kindness  was 
always  the  same,  and  at  the  door  of  the  house  Jesus 
turned,  and  asked:  "Do  you  believe  that  I  can  do 
this  unto  you?  They  say  to  Him,  Yea,  I^ord. 
Then  He  touched  their  eyes,  saying,  According  to 
your  faith,  be  it  done  unto  you.  And  their  eyes 
were  opened."  How  fitting  a  reward  of  the  inward 
sight  of  faith,  thus  to  be  given  the  use  of  the  eyes 
of  the  body,  and  to  look  first  into  the  noble  and 
beautiful  face  of  Jesus  Christ !  As  on  a  former  oc- 
casion, so  now  Jesus  bade  His  grateful  beneficiaries 
to  be  silent  about  the  miracle,  lest  His  plans  should 
be  forced ;  and,  as  before,  so  now  it  was  in  vain : 
"They  spread  His  fame  abroad  in  all  that  country," 


"  I  have  not  found  so  great  faith 
not  even  in  Israel." 


256 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Quickly  followed  a  demoniac  who  was  made  dumb 
by  the  evil  spirit  within  him,  and  Jesus  cast  out  the 
demon  and  the  man  spoke.  ' '  Never  was  the  like  seen 
in  Israel"  was  the  verdict  of  the  people,  who  saw 
Jesus  doing  more  wonders  than  ever  KHas  and 
EHseus  had  done.  But  the  emissa- 
ries of  the  chief  priests,  the  spies  in 
the  camp  of  the  Son  of  David,  whis- 
pered' to  each  other  and  began  to 
say  openly :  ' '  Ey  the  prince  of  devils 
He  casteth  out  devils." 

After  these  miracles  some 
"friends  "of  our  Saviour,  perhaps 
frightened  by  the  accusation  of  dia- 
bolism, had  the  weakness  to  suggest 
that  He  had  grown  frantic,  that  He 
was  become  insane.  "And  they 
come  to  a  house,  and  the  multitude 
cometh  together  again,  so  that  they 
could  not  so  much  as  eat  bread.  And  when  His 
friends  had  heard  of  it,  they  went  out  to  lay  hold  on 
Him.  For  they  said:  He  is  become  mad." 


GIVING    SIGHT    TO    THE    BLIND. — CASTING 

OUT   A   DUMB   DEVIL. 

And  as  Jesus  passed  from  thence  there 
followed  him  two  blind  men,  crying  out 
and  saying  :  Have  mercy  on  us,  O  Son  of 
David.  And  when  he  was  come  to  the 
house,  the  blind  men  came  to  him.  And 
Jesus  saith  to  them  :  Do  you  believe  that 
I  can  do  this  unto  you  ?  They  say  to  him  : 
Yea,  Lord.  Then  He  touched  their  eyes, 
saying :  According  to  your  faith,  be  it 
done  unto  you.  And  their  eyes  were  open- 
ed ;  and  Jesus  strictly  charged  them,  say- 
ing :  See  that  no  man  know  this.  But 
they  going  out  spread  his  fame  abroad 
in  all  that  country.  And  when  they  were 
gone  out,  behold  they  brought  him  a  dumb 
man  possessed  with  a  devil.  And  after  the 
devil  was  cast  out,  the  dumb  man  spoke, 
and  the  multitude  wondered,  saying  :  Never 
was  the  like  seen  in  Israel. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE    MIRACLE    AT    THE     PROBATIC     POOL. — SABBATH- 
BREAKING. — JESUS    ASSERTS    HIS    DIVINITY. 

John  v.  1-15. 

So  far  Jesus  had  preached  and  wrought  miracles 
mainly  in  Galilee,  making  that  province  the  nursery 
of  His  religion.  The  result  was  a  deep-flowing  re- 
ligious sentiment  there.  But  Jerusalem  must  be  made 
to  know  Him  well,  and  He  had  never  ceased  to  think 
of  that  city,  the  heart  of  the  I/and  of  Israel  and 
the  centre  of  all  its  religious  life.  He  therefore  re- 


THE  MIRACLE  A  T  THE  PROS  A  TIC  POOL. 


257 


turned  to  the  Holy  City,  and  immediately  He  wrought 
a  miracle  which  gave  Him  occasion  to  proclaim  His 
divinity  and  to  enlarge  upon  its  attributes. 

"  Now  there  is  at  Jerusalem  a  pond  called  Pro- 
batica,  which  in  Hebrew  is  called  Bethsaida,  having 
five  porches.  In  these  lay  a  great  multitude  of  sick, 
of  blind,  of  lame,  of  withered,  waiting  for  the  moving 
of  the  water."  It  was  a  place  of  miracles,  one  of 

those  Holy  Wells  which  God's  lov-    ^ 

ing  providence  has  scattered  over  all 
parts  of  the  world.  "And  an  angel 
of  the  Lord  descended  at  certain 
times  into  the  pond,  and  the  water 
was  moved.  And  he  that  went  down 
first  into  the  pond  after  the  motion 
of  the  water,  was  made  whole  of 
whatsoever  infirmity  he  lay  under. ' ' 

As  Jesus  passed  there,   He  saw 
among  the  anxious  watchers  of  the 


water's  motion  a  sufferer  whose  air 
of  despondency  aroused  His  compas- 
sion ;  he  had  been  infirm  for  thirty- 
eight  years,  and  our  Saviour  knew 
that  he  had  been  long  and  vainly 
waiting  for  his  cure.  "  Wilt  thou 
be  made  whole?"  He  asked  him. 
The  man  supposed  He  meant  the 
healing  given  by  the  pool.  His  piti- 
ful and  even  reproachful  answer 
deepened  the  sympathy  of  the  Sav- 
iour, whose  heart  is  a  very  ocean  of 
healing.  "  I  have  no  man  to  put 
me  into  the  pond  "  ;  as  if  to  say, 
other  invalids  are  rich  and  have 
their  servants  to  lift  them  up  and 


"  TAKE    UP    THY    BED    AND    WALK." 

After  these  things  was  a  festival  day  of 
the  Jews,  and  Jesus  went  up  to  Jeru- 
salem. Now  there  is  at  Jerusalem  a  pond 
called  Probatica,  which  in  Hebrew  is  called 
Bethsaida,  having  five  porches.  In  these 
lay  a  great  multitude  of  sick,  of  blind,  of 
lame,  of  withered,  waiting  for  the  moving 
of  the  water.  And  an  angel  of  the  Lord 
descended  at  certain  times  into  the  pond, 
and  the  water  was  moved.  And  he  that 
went  down  first  into  the  pond  after  the 
motion  of  the  water,  was  made  whole  of 
whatsoever  infirmity  he  lay  under.  And 
there  was  a  certain  man  there  that  had 
Been  eight  and  thirty  years  under  his  in- 
firmity. Him  when  Jesus  had  seen  lying 
and  knew  that  he  had  been  now  a  long 
time,  he  saith  to  him  :  Wilt  thou  be  made 
whole  ?  The  infirm  man  answered  him  : 
Sir,  I  have  no  man,  when  the  water  is 
troubled,  to  put  me  into  the  pond  ;  for 
whilst  I  am  coming,  another  goeth  down 
before  me.  Jesus  saith  to  him :  Arise, 
take  up  thy  bed  and  walk.  And  immedi- 
ately the  man  was  made  whole  and  he 
took  up  his  bed  and  walked.  And  it  was 
the  Sabbath  that  day.  The  Jews  therefore 
said  to  him  that  was  healed  :  It  is  the  Sab- 
bath ;  it  is  not  lawful  for  thee  to  take 
up  thy  bed.  He  answered  them  :  He  that 
made  me  whole,  he  said  to  me,  Take  up  thy 
bed  and  walk.  They  asked  him  therefore, 
who  is  that  man  who  said  to  thee,  Take 
up  thy  bed  and  walk  ?  But  he  that  was 
healed  knew  not  who  it  was,  for  Jesus 
went  aside  from  the  multitude  standing  in 
the  place.  Afterwards  Jesus  findeth  him  in 
the  Temple  and  saith  to  him  :  Behold  thou 
art  made  whole ;  sin  no  more,  lest  some 
worse  thing  happen  to  thee.  The  man 
went  his  way  and  told  the  Jews  that  it 
was  Jesus  who  made  him  whole. 


258 


LIFE  OF  JESVS  CHRIST. 


at  certain  times  into  the  pond." 


hurry  them  in  before  me,  a  miserable 
pauper  ;  by  the  time  that  I  have  dragged 
myself  to  the  bottom  of  the  steps  the  angel 
is  gone.  But  Jesus  lifted  him  up  quickly 
and  by  a  mere  word  :  "  Arise,  take  up  thy 
-bed  and  walk."  Instantly  the  blood  flow- 
ed new  and  fresh  into  his  withered  legs, 
the  dead  nerves  began  to  tingle  with  the 
warmth  of  life.  He  stood  up  immediately, 
leaped  and  jumped,  took  up  his  bed  and 
walked.  From  this  miracle  aro.se  a  most 
violent  agitation  against  Jesus  :  it  was 
wrought  on  the  Sabbath  day  ! 

Certain  Jews   saw   the   man   who   had 
been  healed  passing  along  the  streets  car- 

*«  An  angel  of  the  Lord  descended    rying   his   bed,  an  admiring  crowd   mak- 

ing  ^m  more  conspicuous,  and  they  cried 
out  to  him  :  "  It  is  the  Sabbath  day  ;  it  is  not 
lawful  for  thee  to  carry  thy  bed."  They  were  less 
concerned  at  a  stupendous  miracle  than  at  a  poor 
man  carrying  his  bed  to  his  humble  home  on  the 
Sabbath.  He,  very  naturally,  took  refuge  from  their 
attack  under  the  authority  of  the  Wonder-worker. 
*  *  He  that  made  me  whole  said  to  me  :  Take  up  thy 
bed  and  walk."  And  who  was  He  ?  The  man  did  not 
know  His  name  ;  meantime  Jesus  had  gone  aside  and 
was  lost  in  the  crowd.  But  Jesus  took  care  to  meet 
him  after  awhile  in  the  Temple,  and  said  to  him  : 
"  Behold  thou  art  made  whole;  sin  no  more,  lest  some 
worse  thing  happen  to  thee."  This  indicates  that  the 
man's  illness  had  been  caused  by  his  vices  ;  Jesus 
read  his  conscience,  and  made  His  work  of  mercy 
complete  by  this  admonition. 

Upon  which  the  healed  man  published  abroad  that 
it  was  Jesus  of  Nazareth  who  had  cured  him.     From 


SABBA  TH-BREAKING.  259 

this  moment  a  bitter  contest  began;  the  Sabbath- 
breaker  is  known,  He  must  be  brought  to  task,  ay, 
He  ought  to  be  slain. 

On  His  part,  He  did  not  shrink,  but  turned  their 
accusation  to  good  account,  showing  His  authority 
by  proving  His  union  with  the  Father.  "  My  Father 
worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work."  He  teaches  that  work 
is  never  wrong  in  itself,  for  on  every  day  God's 
omnipotence  is  inconceivably  active  in  ruling  and  re- 
creating the  universe.  Absolute  cessation  from  work 
for  a  single  instant  would  mean  final  destruction. 
Who  will  proclaim  a  Sabbath  to  the  Almighty  Father 
in  preserving  men's  lives?  Who  will  hinder  the  Son 
from  healing  a  lame  man  on  the  Sabbath  ?  The 
Father  and  the  Son  work  thus  in  unison.  The  reason- 
ing of  Jesus  was  bold,  and  its  meaning,  when 
well  considered,  was  nothing  less  than  a  claim 
to  be  one  God  with  the  Father.  "  My  Father 
worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work." 

The  Jews  saw  plainly  enough  that  when  Jesus 
named  God  as  His  Father  in  so  strict  and  exclusive 
a  sense  He  claimed  divinity.  The  crime  of  Sabbath- 
breaking  was  swallowed  up  in  that  of  blasphemy. 
1 '  Hereupon  therefore  the  Jews  sought  the  more  to  kill 
Him,  because  He  did  not  only  break  the  Sabbath, 
but  also  said  that  God  was  His  Father,  making  Him- 
self equal  to  God."  Jesus  was  unmoved,  nay,  He 
was  glad  of  the  vast  crowd  which  by  this  time  had 
been  drawn  around  Him,-  probably  in  some  spacious 
court  of  the  Temple.  He  began  a  great  discourse, 
divided  into  eight  different  parts,  each  one  lifting  his 
hearers'  minds  high  into  the  contemplation  of  His 
union  with  His  Father. 

i  st.  His    oneness     with    the    Father    in    the    divine 
activity  :  "  Amen,  amen,  I  say  unto  you,  the  Son  can- 


260  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

not  do  anything  of  Himself,  but  what  He  seeth  the 
Father  doing,  or  what  things  soever  He  doth,  these 
the  Son  also  doth  in  like  manner.  For  the  Father 
loveth  the  Son  and  showeth  Him  all  things  which 
Himself  doth,  and  greater  works  than  these  will  He 
show  Him,  that  you  may  wonder."  It  is  "  in  like 
manner"  as  God  the  Father  that  the  uncreated  will 
of  Jesus  flows  into  His  humanity  and  actuates  and 
guides  His  created  will.  This  goes  far  beyond  the 
cure  of  the  withered  limbs  of  a  paralytic  ;  it  will  be 
extended  to,  2d.  The  sovereign  authority  over  life  and 
death  :  ( '  For  as  the  Father  raiseth  up  the  dead  and 
giveth  life,  so  the  Son  also  giveth  life  to  whom  He 
will."  This  life-giving  and  life-taking  power  of  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  Jesus  goes  on  to  show,  is  a 
divine  attribute  associated  with  the  exercise  of  supreme 
dominion  in  the  judgment  of  men's  moral  conduct. 
Jesus  therefore  claims  an  honor  from  men  equal  to 
that  paid  to  His  Father ;  for,  3d.  The  authority  of 
Father  and  Son  as  judges  of  men  is  identical :  "  For 
neither  does  the  Father  judge  any  man,  but  hath 
given  all  judgments  to  the  Son,  that  all  men  may 
honor  the  Son  as  they  honor  the  Father.  He  who 
honoreth  not  the  Son,  honoreth  not  the  Father  who 
sent  Him.  Amen,  amen,  I  say  unto  you,  that  he 
who  heareth  My  word,  and  believeth  Him  that 
sent  Me,  hath  life  everlasting  and  cometh  not  into 
judgment,  but  is  passed  from  death  to  life.  Amen, 
amen,  I  say  unto  you,  that  the  hour  cometh  and 
now  is,  when  the  dead  shall  hear  the  voice  of 
the  Son  of  God,  and  they  that  hear  shall  live.  For 
as  the  Father  hath  life  in  Himself,  so  He  hath  given 
to  the  Son  also  to  have  life  in  Himself.  And  He 
hath  given  Him  power  to  do  judgment,  because  He 
is  the  Son  of  Man.  Wonder  not  at  this,  for  the  hour 


JESUS  ASSERTS  HIS  DIVINITY.  261 

cometh  when  all  that  are  in  the   graves 
shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God. 
And   they  that  have    done    good  things, 
shall  come  forth  unto  the  resurrection  of 
life,  but  they  that  have  done  evil,  unto  the 
resurrection,  of  judgment."     And  now  He 
passes  to  evidence  of  this  claim  of  divinity 
to  be  true,  and  why  it  should  be  accepted. 
He  is  man,  that  is  certain  ;  how  shall  we 
be    equally   certain    that    He  is  God  ? 
Not  by  His  mere  human  word.     For  if 
He  acted  as  man  simply,  separate  from 
God,  He  would  be  powerless  in  ac- 
tion and  unworthy  of  credence  as  a 
teacher.      Therefore   He    says    he 
never   so   acts  or  teaches.     Thus, 
4th,   His  teaching  is  true  because  He 
teaches  in  obedience  to  God :  '  *  I  cannot  of 
Myself   do    anything.     As    I   hear,  so    I 
judge,  and  My  judgment  is  just,  because 
I  seek  not  My  own  will,  but  the  will  of 
Him  who  sent  Me.     If  I  bear  witness  to 
Myself  My  witness  is  not  true.     There  is 
another  that   beareth  witness  of  Me,  and 
I   know  that  the  witness  which  He  wit- 
nesseth  of  Me  is  true."     What  is  the  force 
of  that  witness?     It  is  as  plain   as   day, 
and  as  close  as  God  could    make   it :    a 
great  messenger  of    God,  a  man  of   mar- 
vellous   power,    accepted    by   all    Israel. 

Therefore,   sth,   John  the  Baptist  witnesses 

,?,  r  i    r        rr-         "The  hour  cometh  when  all  that 

JOT    the    truthfulness  of  JeSUS  and  for  His   are  in  the  graves  shall  hear  the  voice 

Messias-ship :    "  There    is    another     that0 

beareth   witness   of  Me,  and  I  know  that  the  witness 

which   He    witnesseth  of    Me  is    true.     You  sent  to 


262  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

John  and  he  gave  testimony  of  the  truth.  But  I 
receive  not  testimony  from  man  ;  but  I  say  these 
things  that  you  may  be  saved.  He  was  a  burning 
and  a  shining  light,  and  you  were  willing  for  a  time 
to  rtjoice  in  his  light."  If  Jesus  be  an  impostor, 
John  the  Baptist  was  a  cheat  or  a  visionary.  But  He 
has  a  yet  more  direct  guarantee  of  His  office  of 
Messias  and  of  the  truth  of  all  His  claims,  including 
that  of  being  the  only  Begotten  Son  of  God — a  guaran- 
tee superior  to  the  testimony  of  John.  It  is  the  amaz- 
ing power  of  miracles.  Nicodemus  the  Pharisee  had 
placed  this  proof  in  its  right  aspect  when  He  said, 
6th,  that  no  man  could  do  the  works  which  Jesus  did 
unless  God  were  with  him:  "But  I  have  a  greater 
testimony  than  that  of  John,  for  the  works  which 
the  Father  hath  given  Me  to  perfect,  the  works  them- 
selves which  I  do,  give  testimony  of  Me,  that  the 
Father  hath  sent  Me.  And  the  Father  Himself  who 
hath  sent  Me,  hath  given  testimony  of  Me."  The 
instinctive  answer  of  the  sceptical  mind  to  this  would 
be  the  demand  actually  to  see  God  and  hear  His 
voice  in  confirmation  of  the  claim  of  Jesus.  But  this 
was  a  frantic  absurdity,  especially  for  a  Hebrew  who 
had  the  revealed  word  of  God  ever  at  hand.  Now, 
yth,  The  divinity  of  Jesus  was  plainly  foretold  in  the 
Scriptures :  ' '  Neither  have  you  heard  His  voice  at 
any  time  nor  seen  His  shape.  And  you  have  not 
His  word  abiding  in  you,  for  whom  He  hath  sent, 
Him  you  believe  not.  Search  the  Scriptures,  for 
you  think  in  them  to  have  life  everlasting,  and  the 
same  are  they  that  give  testimony  of  Me."  The 
Hebrew  prophets  had  uttered  God's  voice  and  these 
men  had  stopped  their  ears.  The  reason  they  do  not 
receive  Jesus  is  not  want  of  reasonable  and  overwhelm- 
ing evidence  of  His  divine  mission  and  even  His  divine 


JESUS  ASSERTS  HIS  DIVINITY.  263 

nature.  For,  8th,  the  Jews  reject  Jesus  because  they  do 
not  love  God.  If  He  had  ministered  to  their  pride  and 
ambition,  they  would  gladly  have  followed  Him.  And 
so  He  ends  His  case  against  them  :  "  And  you  will  not 
come  to  Me  that  you  may  have  life.  I  receive  not 
glory  from  men,  but  I  know  you,  that  you  have 
not  the  love  of  God  in  you.  I  am  come  in  the  name 
of  My  Father,  and  you  receive  Me  not ;  if  another 
shall  come  in  his  own  name,  him  you  will  receive. 
How  can  you  believe,  who  receive  glory  one  from 
another,  and  the  glory  which  is  from  God  alone  you 
do  not  seek?  Think  not  that  I  will  accuse  you  to 
the  Father.  There  is  one  that  accuseth  you,  Moses, 
in  whom  you  trust.  For  if  you  did  believe  Moses, 
you  would  perhaps  believe  Me  also,  for  he  wrote  of 
Me.  But  if  you  do  not  believe  his  writings,  how 
shall  you  believe  My  words  ?  ' ' 

The  Saviour's  concluding  words  are  very  note- 
worthy. He  is  not  the  enemy  of  His  people;  He  will 
not  consent  to  be  their  accuser.  It  is  not  the  Mes- 
sias,  but  Moses,  their  ancient  leader,  intercessor,  law- 
giver, who  will  become  their  judge.  They  are  indeed 
zealous  supporters  of  Moses,  but  only  in  outward  forms, 
for  Jesus,  whom  they  accuse  as  a  blasphemer,  Moses  fore- 
told as  their  Messias,  and  reverenced  as  the  Saviour 
of  the  world  and  the  L,ord  and  Master  of  mankind. 

In  this  majestic  discourse  Jesus  claims  to  possess 
the  incommunicable  attributes  of  the  Deity :  unity  of 
action,  reciprocity  of  power ;  dominion  over  life  and 
death ;  the  supreme  judgeship  of  the  human  race. 
And  He  proves  His  claim  by  reference  to  John  the 
Baptist,  to  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  by  a  gift  of 
miracles  so  constant  and  so  amazing  as  to  guarantee 
God's  approval.  All  this  He  taught  upon  occasion 
of  a  dispute  over  Sabbath-breaking. 


264  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER   XXVI. 

PLUCKING  THE  EARS  OF  WHEAT  ON  THE  SABBATH. — 
HEADING  THE  MAN  WITH  THE  WITHERED  HAND. 
—CONSPIRACY  BETWEEN  THE  PHARISEES  AND 
HERODIANS. 

Matt.  xii.  1-13  ;  Mark  n.  23-28,  and  Hi.  1-5  ; 
Luke  vi.  i-io. 

FTER  the  festival  days  Jesus  left  Jerusalem 
and  journeyed  with  His  disciples  towards 
Galilee.  He  travelled  slowly,  tarrying  along 
the  way  for  several  days  preaching  the  King- 
dom of  God  to  the  country  people.  On  the 
first  Sabbath-day  the  caravan  encamped  near 
some  fields  of  wheat.  Meantime  the  Pharisees 
had  sent  their  detectives  to  watch  and  to  an- 
noy the  Master,  and  St.  Luke  tells  us  what 
then  happened. 

"  And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  second  first  Sabbath, 
that  as  He  went  through  the  corn-fields,  His  disciples 
being  hungry,  began  to  go  forward,  and  to  pluck 
the  ears  of  corn,  rubbing  them  in  their  hands."  This 
became  an  occasion  for  a  brief  but  very  clear  ex- 
planation of  the  difference  between  the  ritual  observ- 
ance of  a  spiritual  man  and  that  of  a  formalist.  The 
religious  martinet  is  mainly  concerned  with  the  out- 
ward form,  the  true  disciple  with  the  spiritual  mean- 
ing. 

The  sharp  zeal  of  the  Pharisees  objected  to  the 
plucking  of  the  ears  of  corn  :  ' '  Why  do  you  that  which 
is  not  lawful  on  the  Sabbath-days  ? ' '  And  others 
went  to  Jesus  and  complained :  ' '  Behold  Thy  dis- 
ciples do  that  which  is  not  lawful  to  do  on  the  Sab- 
bath-days." But  the  alleged  illegality  was  not  fixed 


PLUCKING  WHEAT  ON  THE  SABBATH.  265 

by  Moses  but  by  the  Jewish  rabbis,  who  made  hard 
additions  to  a  law  already  too  hard  to  observe.     Jesus 
answered  in  popular  style  by  citing  examples  :   "  Have 
you  not  read  so  much  as  this,  what  David  did  when 
himself  was   hungry,   and  they  that  were   with   him: 
how  he  went   into   the   house   of  God,   and  took  and 
ate  the  bread  of  proposition,   and  gave  to  them  that 
were   with  him,  which  is  not  lawful   to  eat   but   only 
for   the   priests?"     This   was  an   instance   of  dispen- 
sation on   account   of  necessity,   to   which   all 
such  laws  as  that  of  the  Sabbath  must  yield 
as  to  superior  authority.     But   Jesus  adds   an 
example  of  a  higher  kind,  the  needs  of  relig- 
ious service  itself.     Those  who  ministered  with 
Him  were  on  an  equal  footing  with  those  who 
served  in  the  Temple;    nay,  the  preaching  of 
His    Gospel   was   even    above   the   worship   of 
the  Temple.     "  Or  have  ye  not  read  in  the  law, 
that  on    the    Sabbath-days   the   priests   in   the 
Temple  break  the   Sabbath,  and    are   without    "  Why  do  you  that  which  is 
blame?     But   I   tell  you  that  there  is  here  a      not  ^lawful  on  the  Sabbath- 
greater   than   the  Temple."     Higher   still   He 
leads   them ;    He   tells   them   of    the   supreme  law  of 
charity,  violated  by  them  in  judging  these  hungry  men 
for  taking  a  few  mouthfuls  of  wheat :    * '  And  if   you 
knew  what  this  meaneth,  /  will  have   mercy,    and  not 
sacrifice,  you  would   never  have  condemned   the  inno- 
cent."     The    whole  teaching    is   summarized  in  two 
axioms:     "And   He   said   to   them,  the    Sabbath  was 
made   for   man,    and  not  man   for  the  Sabbath.     The 
Son  of  Man  is  Lord  also  of  the   Sabbath." 

There  was  now  open  war  between  Jesus  and  the 
Pharisees.  His  every  occasion  of  teaching  was  theirs 
for  fault-finding ;  nay,  for  accusation  of  the  most 
deadly  crimes,  such  as  heresy  and  blasphemy.  Even 


266  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

His  miracles,  dictated  by  His  loving  kindness,  were 
pretexts  for  their  poisonous  malice.  The  following 
incident  of  the  healing  of  the  man  with  the  withered 
hand  is  in  point.  The  Apocryphal  Gospel  of  the  Naza- 
renes  says  that  the  man  came  and  said  :  ' '  I  am  a 
poor  mason,  earning  my  living  by  the  labor  of  my 
hands  :  O  Jesus,  I  pray  Thee  to  cure  me,  that  I  may 
be  saved  from  the  shame  of  begging  my  bread." 

Now,  this  was  in  the  synagogue  at  Capharnaum, 
on  the  Sabbath,  perhaps  the  one  after  the  Master's 
arrival  there,  and  in  the  sight  of  a  multitude  of 
people.  Would  Jesus  dare  to  do  on  the  Sabbath  a 
deed  of  charity  that  He  could  just  as  well  post- 
pone to  the  next  day  ?  Would  He  openly  condemn 
the  Pharisees'  interpretation  of  the  Sabbath  rest  ? 
They  watched  Him  with  eager  eyes.  Jesus  de- 
termined to  give  an  object-lesson  of  the  true  Hebrew 
practice :  4 '  And  it  came  to  pass  on  another  Sabbath 
that  He  entered  into  the  synagogue  and  taught.  And 
there  was  a  man  whose  right  hand  was  withered. 
And  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  watched  if  He  would 
heal  on  the  Sabbath,  that  they  might  find  an  accusa- 
tion against  Him.  But  He  knew  their  thoughts  and 
said  to  the  man  with  the  withered  hand  :  Arise,  and 
stand  forth  in  the  midst.  And  rising  he  stood  forth. 
Then  said  Jesus  to  them :  I  ask  you  if  it  be  lawful 
on  the  Sabbath-days  to  do  good  or  to  do  evil,  to 
save  life  or  to  destroy?  But  they  held  their  peace." 
The  prerogative  of  saving  was  His,  for  He  was 
sent  to  save.  Jesus  argued  further:  "What  man 
shall  there  be  among  you,  that  hath  one  sheep,  and 
if  the  same  fall  into  a  pit  on  the  Sabbath-day,  will  he 
not  take  hold  on  it  and  lift  it  up  ?  How  much  better 
is  a  man  than  a  sheep !  Therefore  it  is  lawful  to  do 
a  good  deed  on  the  Sabbath-day."  The  very  soul 


THE  MAN  WITH  THE  WITHERED  HAND. 


267 


of  Jesus  was  stirred  within  Him  at  their  fanatical 
orthodoxy.  "  And  looking  round  about  on  them  with 
anger,  being  grieved  for  the  blindness  of  their  hearts, 
He  saith  to  the  man  :  Stretch  forth  thy  hand.  And 
he  stretched  it  forth,  and  his  hand  was  restored  to 
him."  If  a  shepherd  would  save  his  sheep  on  the 
Sabbath,  Jesus  would  save  a  friend,  a  brother,  though 
on  account  of  it  the  Pharisees  should  thirst  for 
His  blood. 

The  Pharisees  now  began  to  take  counsel  for  His 
death.  They  even  went  for  counsel  to  the  He- 
rodians,  the  emissaries  and  spies  of  the  licentious 
tyrant  who  had  but  recently  imprisoned  John  the 
Baptist.  It  is  a  sad  example  of  how  the  hypocriti- 
cal external  observance  of  law  may  form  alliance 
with  shameless  vice  against  true  virtue.  "And  the 
Pharisees  were  filled  with  madness,  and  they  talked 
one  with  another,  what  they  might  do  to  Jesus, 
and  going  out  immediately,  made  a  consultation 
with  the  Herodians  against  Him,  how  they  might 
destroy  Him.  But  Jesus  knowing  it,  retired  from 
thence  with  His  disciples  to  the  sea  ;  and  many  fol- 
lowed Him,  and  He  healed  them  all.  And  He 
charged  them  that  they  should  not  make  Him 
known.  And  a  great  multitude  followed  Him  from 
Galilee  and  from  Jerusalem  and  Idumea,  and  from 
beyond  the  Jordan ;  and  they  about  Tyre  and 
Sidon,  a  great  multitude,  hearing  the  things  which 
He  did,  came  to  Him.  And  He  spoke  to  His  dis- 
ciples that  a  small  ship  should  wait  on  Him  be- 
cause of  the  multitude,  lest  they  should  throng 
Him.  For  He  healed  many,  so  that  they  pressed 
upon  Him  for  to  touch  Him,  as  many  as  had 
evils.  And  the  unclean  spirits,  when  they  saw 
Him,  fell  down  before  Him,  and  they  cried,  say- 


"And  He  ^  to  the 

man  :  Stretch  forth 

thy  hand." 


268  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

ing,  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God.  And  He  strictly 
charged  them  that  they  should  not  make  Him  known. 
That  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by 
Isaias  the  Prophet,  saying  :  Behold,  My  servant  whom 
I  have  chosen,  My  beloved  in  whom  My  Soul  hath  been 
well  pleased.  I  will  put  My  Spirit  upon  Him,  and 
He  shall  show  judgment  to  the  Gentiles.  He  shall  not 
contend,  nor  cry  out,  neither  shall  any  man  hear  His 
voice  in  the  streets.  The  bruised  reed  He  shall  not 
break,  and  smoking  flax  He  shall  not  extinguish,  till 
He  send  forth  judgment  unto  victory.  And  in  His  Name 
the  Gentiles  shall  hope." 

Jesus  therefore  deemed  it  prudent  to  give  up  Ca- 
pharnaum  as  His  ordinary  domicile,  and  for  a  period 
He  sailed  with  His  disciples  from  place  to  place  along 
the  lake  shore,  preaching  and  healing  as  before, 
but  endeavoring  to  suppress  the  fame  of  His  miracles. 
Soon,  however,  He  found  that  a  yet  further  retreat 
was  necessary  for  His  purpose.  He  landed  with  His 
Apostles  on  the  west  shore  and  went  back  into  the 
country  towards  Nairn. 


THE  GREA  T  MIRACLE  OF  NAIM  269 


RUINS  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NAIM. 

CHAPTER   XXVII. 

THE    GREAT    MIRACLE    OF    NAIM. 
Luke  vii.  11-18. 

NAIM  was  a  little  city  the  better  part  of  a  day's 
journey  from  the  lake  shore.  It  was  beautifully 
placed  (it  is  now  but  a  miserable  cluster  of  huts) 
on  the  north-west  slope  of  L,ittle  Hermon,  and  was 
once  a  town  of  some  note.  In  visiting  the  very  ancient 
cemetery  near  by,  the  lessons  of  death  are  mingled 
with  the  joyful  thought  that  the  old  enemy  met 
more  than  his  match  one  pleasant  evening  of  the 
long  ago  at  the  adjacent  city  gate. 

As  Jesus  journeyed  with  the  large  following  which 
was  now  His  usual  company,  He  passed  the  cave 
of  the  witch  of  Endor,  and  looked  westward  over  the 
plain  of  Esdrelon,  in  former  days  empurpled  with 
the  blood  of  many  great  battles.  Perhaps  He  con- 
versed of  the  heroes  of  old  and  of  how  they  all 


270 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


finally  were  conquered  by  death,  an  enemy  who 
was  now  to  be  overthrown.  As  He  approached  the 
city's  gate  His  soul  was  moved  by  the  plaintive 
sound  of  the  Hebrew  death  chant.  Soon  they  saw 
the  funeral  approaching.  First  came  the  men,  their 
heads  and  faces  partly  covered  with  their  mantles, 
their  feet  bare,  their  garments  rent,  moving  slowly 
and  in  silence,  followed  by  the  corpse.  There  lay 
the  dead  man  swathed  in  cerecloths  upon  an  open 
bier,  his  white  face  turned  vacantly 
to  the  sky.  The  women  came  next, 
singing  with  many  tears  a  mournful 


THE    WIDOW'S  SON. 


And  it  came  to  pass  afterwards,  that  he 
went  into  a  certain  city  that  is  called  Nairn, 


and  there  went  with  him  his  disciples  and  a 
great  multitude.  And  when  he  came  nigh 
to  the  gate  of  the  city,  behold  a  dead  man 
was  carried  out,  the  only  son  of  his  mother, 
and  she  was  a  widow,  and  a  great  multi- 
tude of  the  city  was  with  her.  Whom 
when  the  Lord  had  seen,  being  moved  with 
mercy  towards  her,  he  said  to  her  :  Weep 
not.  And  he  came  near  and  touched  the 
bier.  And  they  that  carried  it  stood  still. 
And  he  said  :  Young  man,  I  say  to  thee, 
Arise.  And  he  that  was  dead  sat  up  and 
began  to  speak.  And  he  gave  him  to  his 
mother.  And  there  came  a  fear  on  them  all 
and  they  glorified  God,  saying  :  A  great 
prophet  is  risen  up  among  us,  and  God  hath 
visited  his  people.  And  this  rumor  of  him 
went  forth  throughout  all  Judea,  and 
throughout  all  the  country  round  about. 
And  John's  disciples  told  him  of  all  these 
things. 


chant  accompanied  by  the  sweet 
notes  of  the  flutes.  In  this  case 
there  was  no  false  show  of  sympathy, 
for  the  dead  man  ' '  was  the  only  son 
of  his  mother,  and  she  was  a  widow, 
and  a  great  multitude  of  the  city 
was  with  her."  What  happened  is 
told  thus  by  St.  Luke:  "Whom 
when  the  Lord  had  seen,  being 
moved  with  mercy  towards  her,  He 
said  to  her:  Weep  not.  And  He 
came  near  and  touched  the  bier. 
And  they  that  carried  it  stood  still. 
And  He  said :  Young  man,  I  say  to  thee,  Arise. 
And  he  that  was  dead  sat  up  and  began  to  speak. 
And  He  gave  him  to  his  mother." 

Jesus  commanded  Death,  and  that  pitiless  tyrant 
instantly  obeyed — the  corpse  heard  and  spoke  and 
was  alive.  Jesus  took  him  by  the  hand  and  led  him 
to  the  astounded  mother;  he  began  to  speak — per- 
haps to  repeat  the  words  of  Jesus :  "Mother,  weep 
not."  What  a  deep  impression  must  have  been  made 
upon  all  the  people  present  !  He  who  is  Master  of 


THE  GREAT  MIRACLE  OF  NAIM. 


271 


"  And  He  gave  him  to  his  mother." 

death  is  man's  easy  conqueror.  "They  glorified  God, 
saying  :  A  great  Prophet  is  risen  up  among  us,  and 
God  hath  visited  His  people."  In  truth,  this  awful 
miracle,  which  surpassed  in  publicity  and  in  other 
favorable  circumstances  that  of  the  raising  to  life  of 
the  daughter  of  Jairus,  was  soon  talked  about  every- 
where. The  disciples  of  John  hurried  away  to  his 
prison  with  the  marvellous  tidings. 


272  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

THE    MESSENGERS    OF    ST.    JOHN    THE    BAPTIST. 
Matt.  xi.  2-19;  Luke  mi.  18-35. 

S  the  Baptist  heard  these  wonders  his  soul 
triumphed  with  Jesus  over  death  and  over  the 
demons.  But  he  never  dreamed  of  Jesus  be- 
ing his  deliverer  from  prison ;  his  unselfish 
nature  was  absorbed  in  the  one  thought  of 
God's  will,  God's  glory,  all  centred  in  the 
Messias.  He  longed  to  hear  of  His  supremacy 
among  the  people,  at  the  Temple,  before  the 
Romans — His  full  religious  supremacy.  But  John's 
disciples,  who  had  already  quarrelled  with  those  of 
Jesus,  must  have  made  some  complaints  to  him,  impart- 
ed to  him  their  doubts,  questioned  the  entire  fulfilment 
of  the  prophecies  in  the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth.  Hence 
the  Precursor  sent  from  his  prison  a  message  which  he 
hoped  would  hasten  Jesus  in  His  onward  march,  and 
elicit  from  Him  a  more  solemn  proclamation  of  His 
Messias-ship  than  any  yet  given.  The  message  was 
sent  with  another  purpose,  that  of  allaying  the  doubts 
of  John's  adherents,  as  being  calculated,  by  voicing 
their  difficulties,  to  secure  an  explicit  affirmation, 
made  direct  to  them,  of  Jesus'  Messias-ship.  "  He 
called  to  him  two  of  his  disciples  and  sent  them  to 
Jesus,  saying :  Art  thou  He  that  art  to  come  or 
look  we  for  another?"  John,  exercising  his  office 
of  pointing  out  the  Lamb  of  God,  does  Him  this 
last  service  before  his  own  martyrdom  shall  close 
his  lips — a  witness  faithful  unto  death. 

Our  Saviour  did  not  change  His  plan  at  this  solici- 
tation, and  yet  He  received  the  strange  embassy  with 
loving  courtesy.  Deeds,  miracles,  heavenly  power, 


ST.  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST.  273 

heavenly  love  for  the  poor,  must  ever  outrank  mere 
words,  no  matter  how  plain,  in  authenticating  His 
mission  ;  herein  He  teaches  us  a  lesson  of  practical 
religion:  "Go  and  relate  to  John  what  you  have 
heard  and  seen :  the  blind  see,  the  lame  walk,  the 
lepers  are  made  clean,  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  rise 
again,  to  the  poor  the  Gospel  is  preached."  This 
answer  was  of  more  worth  to  the  orthodox  Jews 
who  came  from  John  than  at  first  sight  we  might 
suppose,  for  they  were  children  of  the  prophets. 
Now,  Isaias  (xxxv.  5)  had  marked  the  Messias'  open- 
ing of  blind  eyes  and  deaf  ears,  giving  speech  to 
the  dumb  and  healing  the  halt  and  lame,  evangeliz- 
ing the  poor,  as  signs  of  His  divine  mission ;  Ezechiel 
(xxxvi.  and  xxxvii.)  foretold  the 
raising  of  the  dead  to  life.  But 
Jesus  gave  a  final  word  of  warning  to 
His  Precursor's  followers:  "Bless- 
ed is  he  whosoever  shall  not  be 
scandalized  in  Me." 

He  waited  till  they  had  departed, 
lest  His  words  of  praise  for  John 
should  seem  like  personal  flattery, 
and  then  He  gave  to  His  immense 
auditory  what  was  in  reality  the 
funeral  oration  upon  John,  whose 
end  the  Saviour  knew  was  near  at 
hand — the  end  of  a  mighty  saint, 
worthy,  if  any  one  could  be  so,  to  be  preached  over  by 
the  Son  of  God.  St.  Luke  doubtless  gives  us  but  a 
brief  summary  of  this  striking  eulogy  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist— the  saintliest  of  all  hermits,  of  all  ascetics  and 
contemplatives,  of  all  who  keep  baptismal  innocence  or 
who  achieve  its  recovery  by  penance,  model  of  mission- 
aries to  sinful  Christians,  of  fearless  reprovers  of  crime 


"  GO  AND  RELATE  WHAT  YOU  HAVE  HEARD 
AND  SEEN." 

Now,  when  John  had  heard  in  prison  the 
works  of  Christ  [he]  called  to  him  two  of 
his  disciples  and  sent  them  to  Jesus,  say- 
ing :  Art  thou  he  that  art  to  come,  or 
look  we  for  another  ?  And  when  the  men 
were  come  unto  him  they  said  :  John 
the  Baptist  hath  sent  us  to  thee,  saying : 
Art  thou  he  that  art  to  come,  or  look  we 
for  another  ?  (And  in  that  same  hour  he 
cured  many  of  their  diseases,  and  hurts, 
and  evil  spirits,  and  to  many  that  were 
blind  he  gave  sight.)  And  answering,  he 
said  to  them  :  Go  and  relate  to  John  what 
you  have  heard  and  seen  :  the  blind  see,  the 
lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  made  clean,  the 
deaf  hear,  the  dead  rise  again,  to  the  poor 
the  Gospel  is  preached,  and  blessed  is  he 
whosoever  shall  not  be  scandalized  in  me. 


274  LTfE  OF  JESUS  CffRJST. 

iii  high  places,  martyrs,  humble  lovers  of  Jesus  the 
Lamb  of  God:  "What  went  you  out  into  the 
desert  to  see  ?  a  reed  shaken  with  the  wind  ?  But 
what  went  you  out  to  see  ?  a  man  clothed  in  soft 
garments  ?  Behold,  they  that  are  in  costly  apparel, 
and  live  delicately,  are  in  the  houses  of -kings.  But 
what  went  you  out  to  see  ?  A  prophet  ?  Yea,  I 
say  to  you,  and  more  than  a  prophet ;  this  is  he  of 
whom  it  is  written,  Behold  I  send  My  angel  before 
Thy  face,  who  shall  prepare  Thy  way  before  Thee." 

He  was  the  greatest  natural  man  that  was  ever 
born  of  woman,  the  last  and  the  greatest  of  the  heroic 
race  of  Israel.  "For  I  say  to  you,  amongst  those 
that  are  born  of  women,  there  .is  not  a  greater  prophet 
than  John  the  Baptist."  And  yet  the  old  order,  even 
as  typified  in  John,  yields  to  the  new,  the  child  of 
the  promise  to  the  child  of  the  fulfilment:  "But  he 
that  is  the  lesser  in  the  Kingdom  of  God,  is  greater 
than  he."  Greater,  that  is  to  say,  in  dignity,  but 
certainly  not  in  personal  virtue.  As  Moses  led  the 
children  of  Israel  to  the  L,and  of  Promise  without 
entering  it,  so  John  leads  the  people  to  the  perfection 
of  their  destiny  in  Christ  and  His  Church,  points  it 
out,  gazes  fondly  upon  it,  and  remains  in  the  desert 
to  close  by  a  glorious  death  the  long  era  of  God's 
ancient  dispensation. 

And  yet,  having  given  John  such  high  praise,  our 
Saviour  was  not  done  with  him.  He  would  still  insist 
that  the  ideal  Jew  was  John  and  John's  type  of  old, 
the  Prophet  Elias ;  this  was  the  stuff  to  make  the 
best  Christians  of — the  true  Israelite  was  of  a  manly, 
a  daring,  a  warlike  race,  as  well  as  one  gifted  with 
the  fixed  gaze  of  the  Semitic  contemplative.  "And 
from  the  days  of  John  the  Baptist  until  now,  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  suffereth  violence,  and  the  violent 


ST.  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST.  275 

bear  it  away.  For  all  the  prophets  and  the  Law 
prophesied  until  John.  And  if  you  will  receive  it, 
he  is  EHas  that  is  to  come."  Then  He  marked  His 
emphasis:  "He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear." 
Meantime  many  Jewish  leaders  had  rejected  John, 
and  Jesus  reminded  His  hearers  of  this.  Not  cour- 
age but  rashness,  not  frankness  but  intrigue,  not  hu- 
mility but  haughtiness  were  their  characteristics  and 
the  qualities  they  sought  in  others.  They  had  set 
themselves  apart  from  God's  Kingdom,  and  the  result 
was  that  publicans  and  simple  country  people  and 
rough  fishermen  were  given  their  vacant  places  ;  and 
this  began  with  John's  baptizing  in  the  Jordan : 
"  And  all  the  people  hearing,  and  the  publicans,  justi- 
fied God,  being  baptized  with  John's  baptism.  But 
the  Pharisees  and  the  lawyers  despised  the  counsel 
of  God  against  themselves,  being  not  baptized  by 
him."  If  John  was  too  austere  for  them,  Jesus  was 
too  lax  :  the  critical  spirit  is  content  with  nothing 
but  the  office  of  criticism.  "And  the  lyord  said, 
Whereunto,  then,  shall  I  liken  the  men  of  this  genera- 
tion ?  and  to  what  are  they  like  ?  They  are  like  to 
children  sitting  in  the  market-place,  and  speaking 
one  to  another  and  saying:  We  have  piped  to  you, 
and  you  have  not  danced;  we  have  mourned,  and 
you  have  not  wept.  For  John  the  Baptist  came, 
neither  eating  bread  nor  drinking  wine,  and  you  say  : 
He  hath  a  devil.  The  Son  of  Man  is  come  eating 
and  drinking,  and  you  say :  Behold  a  man  that  is  a 
glutton  and  wine-drinker,  a  friend  of  publicans  and 
sinners."  Pride  is  by  turns  a  scofiing  free-liver  and 
a  fanatical  ascetic — anything  so  as  to  maintain  its 
place  of  censor.  Wrong-hearted  men  would  be  both 
self-indulgent  and  gloomy  in  their  religion,  because 
they  are  proud ;  proud  men  cannot  be  happy  even 


276 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


when  yielding  to  sensuality,  for  their  best  pleasure 
is  in  making  other  men  miserable.  But  our  Saviour 
ended  thus:  "Wisdom  is  justified  by  all  her  chil- 
dren." Penance  is  consistent  with  joy — nay,  it  alone 
gives  true  joy,  for  it  generates  peace  of  conscience 
and  loving  confidence  in  God.  Joy  is  the  dominant 
note  of  all  godlike  conduct  whether 
jubilant  or  penitential,  for  God  is 
love  and  joy.  If  a  man  is  able  easily 
to  weep  and  to  laugh  by  turns  he  has 
learned  true  life. 


THE    WOMAN    THAT    WAS    A    SINNER. 

And  one  of  the  Pharisees  desired  him  to 
eat  with  him.  And  he  went  into  the  house 
of  the  Pharisee  and  sat  down  to  meat. 
And  behold,  a  woman  that  was  in  the  city, 
a  sinner,  when  she  knew  that  he  sat  at 
meat  in  the  Pharisee's  house,  brought  an 
alabaster  box  of  ointment,  and  standing 
behind  at  his  feet,  she  began  to  wash  his 
feet  with  tears,  and  wipe  them  with  the 
hairs  of  her  head,  and  kissed  his  feet,  and 
anointed  them  with  me  ointment.  And  the 
Pharisee  who  had  invited  him,  seeing  it, 
spoke  within  himself,  saying  :  This  man,  if 
he  were  a  prophet,  would  know  surely  who 
and  what  manner  of  woman  this  is  that 
toucheth  him,  that  she  is  a  sinner.  And 
Jesus  answering,  said  to  him  :  Simon,  1 
have  somewhat  to  say  to  thee.  But  he 
said :  Master,  say  it.  A  certain  creditor 
had  two  debtors  ;  the  one  owed  five  hundred 
pence  and  the  other  fifty.  And  whereas 
they  had  not  wherewith  to  pay,  he  forgave 
them  both.  Which  therefore  of  the  two 
loveth  him  most  ?  Simon  answering  said  : 
I  suppose  that  he  to  whom  he  forgave 
most.  And  he  said  to  him,  Thou  hast 
judged  rightly.  And  turning  to  the  woman, 
he  said  unto  Simon  :  Dost  thou  see  this 
woman  ?  I  entered  into  thy  house  :  thou 
gavest  me  no  water  for  my  feet ;  but  she 
with  tears  hath  washed  my  feet,  and  with 
her  hairs  hath  wiped  them.  Thou  gavest 
me  no  kiss,  but  she,  since  she  came  in, 
hath  not  ceased  to  kiss  my  feet.  My  head 
with  oil  thou  didst  not  anoint,  but  she 
with  ointment  hath  anointed  my  feet. 
Wherefore  I  say  to  thee,  many  sins  are 
forgiven  her,  because  she  hath  loved  much. 
But  to  whom  less  is  forgiven,  he  loveth 
less.  And  he  said  to  her,  Thy  sins  are  for- 
given thee.  And  they  that  sat  at  meat  with 
him  began  to  say  within  themselves  :  Who 
is  this  that  forgiveth  sins  also  ?  And  he 
said  to  the  woman  :  Thy  faith  hath  made 
thee  safe  ;»go  in  peace. 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

THE   MAGDALEN   AT  THE   BANQUET. 

Luke  mi.  36-50. 

The  great  assemblage  had  broken 
up  and  the  people  had  scattered  to 
their  homes.  All  but  our  Saviour's 
immediate  disciples  must  return  to 
daily  labor  and  household  duties, 
His  lessons  resting  only  upon  the 
surface  of  some  minds  and  sinking 
deep  into  others,  all  thinking  and 
talking  of  Him  and  of  His  miracles 
and  His  doctrine.  The  Master  was 
led  by  His  followers  to  the  hospital- 
ity of  a  prominent  Pharisee  named 
Simon,  whose  house  was  in  the  town 
of  Magdala,  upon  whose  site  on  the 
lake  shore  the  pilgrim  of  our  day 
finds  the  little  Arab  village  Kl- 
Megdel,  its  humble  cottages  taking 
the  place  of  the  old-time  luxurious 
dwellings,  whose  very  ruins  are  al- 


THE  MAGDALEN  A  T  THE  BANQUET.  277 

most  totally  obliterated.  The  town 
was  a  place  of  evil  repute,  containing 
many  bad  women  and  worse  men. 
Those  of  its  inhabitants  who  were 
not  given  to  vice  were  either  careless 
of  its  scandal  or  fanatical  in  their 
opposition  to  it. 

But  why  did  Simon  the  Pharisee 
invite  Jesus  to  dine  with  him  ?  Not 
from  love,  it  would  seem;  for  we  shall  find  that 
the  Master  received  scant  courtesy  from  His  host. 
Jesus  had  His  own  purposes,  and  accepted  the 
invitation.  Leaving  His  sandals,  according  to 
usage,  at  the  door,  He  noticed  as  He  entered  that 
He  was  not  offered  the  water  and  towel  to  wash 
His  feet,  customary  in  that  sub-tropical  country  ; 
nor  was  He  given  the  usual  kiss  of  welcome,  nor 
the  perfumed  oil  for  His  hair  and  beard.  What 
happened  afterwards  is  narrated  by  St.  Luke  with 
such  vividness  as  to  be  almost  spoiled  by  comment. 

Let  us  admit  that  the  poor  Pharisee  might  well  be 
indignant  at  seeing  a  harlot  making  her  way  through 
the  curious  crowd  which  hung  about  the  doors  and 
windows,  entering,  in  spite  of  his  servants,  into  his 
dining-hall,  and  then  going  up  to  the  couch  on  which 
Jesus  half  reclined,  according  to  custom,  beside  the 
Pharisee  himself.  What  would  shock  us  more  than 
such  boldness?  But  let  us  ask  what  were  Mary's 
feelings?  The  poor  Magdalen  blushed  purple  and 
then  was  pale  with  nervous  excitement.  She  wept  ; 
and  Jesus,  who  hated  shameless  lust  as  no  one  else 
ever  could,  was  moved  to  tender  pity  by  her  grief 
and  her  tears. 

He  had  known  her  before ;  He  had  converted 
her  and  cast  seven  devils  out  of  her  (Luke  vii.  2). 


278 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


This  had  happened  at  one  of  His  visits  to  this  part  of 
the  lake  shore ;  perhaps  she  had  halted  her  splendid 
chariot  on  the  edge  of  one  of  His  assemblages  and 
caught  some  words  of  burning  reproach, 
gone  sorrowfully  away,  repented,  returned 
and  confessed,  and  now  sought  Him  as  her 
Master,  and  would  begin  her  following  of 
Him  by  public  penance.  She  was  of  a 
respectable,  doubtless  a  wealthy  family, 
for  we  shall  find  her  again  at  Bethany,  a 
sister  to  Martha  and  L,azarus,  our  Sav- 
iour's faithful  friends.  The  scene  of  her 
career  as  an  evil  woman  was,  as  her 
name  imports,  at  this  town  of  Magdala, 
far  away  from  her  home,  to  which,  we 
surmise,  she  did  not  return  till  after  our 
Saviour  had  interceded  for  her  with  her 
brother  and  sister. 

Her  wayward  heart  had  been  trans- 
formed. Her  eyes,  whose  flashing  beauty 
had  been  a  snare  to  herself  and  others, 
now  served  her  to  weep  penitential  tears 
upon  the  feet  of  Jesus,  her  beautiful  tress- 
es humbly  to  wipe  them,  and  her  lips, 
made  clean  by  many  earnest  words  of  true 
contrition,  privileged  to  kiss  those  feet 
whose  unwearied  zeal  pursues  lost  souls 
through  the  briers  and  rocks  of  every  hu- 
Her  career  as  an  evil  woman  was  at  man  misery.  What  our  Saviour  valued 
this  town  of  Magdala."  mQst  in  Mary>s  case  was  the  loye  in  lier 

heart,  whose  depths  were  stirred  with  gratitude,  deep 
and  true  in  proportion  to  her  former  degradation. 

The  public  penances  inflicted  by  the  Church  for 
open  vice  which  characterized  the  heroic  age  of  Chris- 
tianity had  their  beginning  in  Simon's  dining-hall 


THE  MAGDALEN. 


279 


that  day,  as  Mary  the  public  harlot,  lately  released  by 
the  word  or  look  or  thought  of  Jesus  from  seven  devils 
of  uncleanness,  sought  her  pardon  in  this  open  way, 
as  she  had  with  open  scandal  sinned  against  her 
Maker  and  her  fellow- creatures. 

But  after  Jesus  had  set  Simon  right,  He  adminis- 
tered a  rebuke  to  him,  a  bitter  one  surely,  for  it  com- 
pared   him   unfavorably    with   this    converted    harlot. 
It   is  not   seldom   that  a  reformed   Christian   sets    an 
example    which   puts    an    innocent    Christian    to   the 
blush.     Poor   Mary    had    not    spoken ;  so    much   did 
mingled  grief  and  joy  monopolize   her   heart  that   her 
tongue  could   find  no  words.     But  she   was   eloquent, 
none   the   less,    by    her  affectionate   humility.     "And 
turning  to  the  woman,  He  said  unto  Simon  :  Dost  thou 
see  this    woman  ?     I    entered    into   thy   house :    thou 
gavest  Me  no  water  for  My  feet ;  but  she  with  tears 
hath  washed  My  feet,  and  with  her  hair  hath  wiped 
them.     Thou  gavest  Me  no  kiss,   but  she,  since  she 
came  in,  hath  not  ceased  to  kiss  My  feet.     My  head 
with  oil  thou  didst  not  anoint,  but  she  with  ointment 
hath   anointed    My   feet.     Wherefore   I   say   to    thee, 
many  sins  are  forgiven  her,  because  she  hath 
loved  much.     But  to  whom  less  is  forgiven,  he 
loveth  less.     And  He  said  to  her,  Thy  sins  are 
forgiven  thee."     How  happy  a   lot  for  Simon 
if  such  words   could   have  been   said   to  him ! 
But  this  was  a  gloomy  outlook  for  Jesus — the 
state  of  mind  revealed  by  Simon's  objec- 
tions.    What  could  a  Redeemer  hope  for 
when  the  best  and  most  influential  of  the 
people  were  shocked  at   His  love  of  sin- 
ners, and  grumbled  at  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  ?     ' '  And  they  that  sat  at  meat  with 

Him    began     to    Say    within     themselves:  "  Many  sins  are  forgiven  her." 


280 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


"Thy  faith  hath  made  thee  safe." 

Who  is  this  that  forgiveth  sins  also  ?  And  He  said  to 
the  woman :  Thy  faith  hath  made  thee  safe.  Go  in 
peace." 

But  if  faith  had  saved  her,  love  enchained  her.  Go 
away  she  would  not.  She  becomes  a  close  friend  and 
follower  of  Jesus.  The  converted  prostitute  is  one  of 
the  high  personages  in  the  history  of  Christ's  mission, 
a  chosen  witness  of  His  death  and  resurrection. 


A  T  NAZARETH  AGAIN. 


281 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

AT   NAZARETH   AGAIN. 

Matt.  xiii.  54-58 ;  Mark  m.  1-6 ;  Luke  vii.  11-17. 

HATEVKR  mystery  hides  the  re- 
jection of  our  Saviour  by  the  peo- 
C\ple  of  Nazareth,  His  love  for  them 
is  in  the  open  day.  He  returned 
— probably  at  this  time — to  His 
early  home,  that  His  suspicious 
and  jealous  fellow- townsmen  might 
be  allowed  to  atone  for  their  previous  rejection  of 
Him,  and  might  offer  some  of  their  better  spirits  as 
members  of  His  apostolate.  Many  disciples  went  with 
Him  to  Nazareth,  and  as  He  appeared  in  the  synagogue 
at  the  Sabbath  meeting,  their  enthusiasm  and  the  news 
of  His  wonderful  works  gained  Him  at  least  a  respect- 
able reception.  The  halo  of  mira- 

cles  encircled  His  brow,  "  and  many 
were  in  admiration  at  His  doctrine." 
Yes ;  but  it  was  not  the  admiration 
of  docile  spirits,  but  of  vain  men 
puzzled  by  a  mystery  and  resenting 
its  difficulty  :  "  How  came  this  Man 
by  all  these  things  ?  ' '  The  curios- 
ity of  a  humble  soul  is  the  seed  of 
faith  ;  but  the  people  of  Nazareth 
had  judicial  curiosity.  They  would 
seek  truth  as  its  masters  and  not  as 
its  servants.  Among  themselves 
they  talked  over  the  family  of  Jesus, 
as  if  each  humble  name  of  mother, 
father,  cousins  (called  by  Jewish 
custom  brothers  and  sisters)  was 


IS    NOT    THIS    THE    CARPENTER  ? 

And  going  out  from  thence,  he  went  into 
his  own  country,  and  his  disciples  followed 
him.  And  when  the  Sabbath  was  come,  he 
began  to  teach  in  the  synagogue :  and 
many  hearing  him  were  in  admiration  at 
his  doctrine,  saying  :  How  came  this  man 
by  all  these  things  ?  and  what  wisdom  is 
this  which  is  given  to  him,  and  such 
miracles  as  are  wrought  by  his  hands  ?  Is 
not  this  the  carpenter,  the  son  of  Mary,  the 
brother  of  James,  and  Joseph,  and  Jude, 
and  Simon  ?  Are  not  also  his  sisters  here 
with  us  ?  And  they  were  scandalized  in 
regard  of  him.  And  Jesus  said  to  them : 
A  prophet  is  not  without  honor  save  in  his 
own  country,  and  in  his  own  house,  and 
among  his  own  kindred.  And  he  could 
not  do  many  miracles  there,  only  that  he 
cured  a  few  that  were  sick,  laying  his 
hands  upon  them,  and  he  wondered  be- 
cause of  their  unbelief.  And  he  went 
through  the  villages,  cities,  and  towns,  teach- 
ing in  their  synagogues  and  preaching  the 
Gospel  of  the  kingdom,  and  healing  every 
disease  and  every  infirmity. 


282  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

an  injury  to  the  great  Prophet's  mission:  "Is  not 
this  the  carpenter,  the  son  of  Mary,  the  brother  of 
James,  and  Joseph,  and  Jude,  and  Simon  ?  Are 
not  also  his  sisters  here  with  us  ? ' '  They  were  men 
who  would  rather  see  wisdom  and  virtue  discredited 
by  the  lowly  social  state  of  its  teacher,  than  witness 
that  social  state  elevated  by  even  a  divine  exponent. 
Part  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  was  that  wisdom  came 
more  by  gift  of  God  than  bjr  human  study,  and  if 
they  must  choose  between  believing  that  or  holding 
Him  an  impostor,  they  preferred  the  latter  alterna- 
tive. 

The  Evangelist  says  that  Jesus  ' '  wondered  at  their 
unbelief."  He  repeated  the  reproach  of  His  former 
visit :  * '  A  prophet  is  not  without  honor  save  in  his 
own  country,  and  in  his  own  house,  and  among  his 
own  kindred."  He  went  away,  having  been  hindered 
in  working  miracles  by  the  lack  of  faith,  only  a  few 
that  were  sick  having  been  cured  by  His  ' '  laying  His 
hands  upon  them."  Soon  this  heavy  air  of  selfishness 
was  changed  for  the  congenial  atmosphere  of  the 
towns  and  villages  of  the  adjacent  country,  which  gave 
Him  hearty  welcome.  He  taught  "  in  their  syna- 
gogues, preaching  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom,  and 
healing  every  disease  and  every  infirmity." 


EVANGELIZING  GALILEE.  283 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

EVANGEUZING  GAULEE. — THE    DEVOUT    WOMEN  WHO 
MINISTERED    TO    JESUS. 

Luke  viii.    2,  3. 

JESUS  had  now  both  organized  His  Church  and 
set  it  a  pattern  of  how  to  teach.  He  thereupon 
"  travelled  through  the  cities  and  towns,  preaching 
and  evangelizing  the  Kingdom  of  God."  The  whole 
country  of  Galilee  and  parts  of  the  adjacent  provinces 
saw  Him  and  heard  His  doctrine,  sometimes  in  their 
synagogues,  oftener  in  the  open  air  in  pleasant  coun- 
try places.  We  know  little  of  the  details  of  this 
journeying,  or  of  the  meetings  and  miracles  which 
marked  it.  It  was  like  the  march  of  the  sun  from 
morning  to  evening  across  the  hemisphere  distribut- 
ing warmth  and  light,  or  rather,  like  the  sailing  of 
a  fleet  of  richly  laden  vessels,  trading  from  port  to 
port ;  Jesus  everywhere  left  His  blessed  promise  of 
eternal  life,  His  treasure  of  how  to  know  truth  and 
practise  virtue,  and  He  carried  away  the  only  pay- 
ment He  ever  exacted,  the  loving  profession  of  faith  : 
' '  This  is  indeed  the  Son  of  God !  "  To  be  acknowl- 
edged and  loved  as  the  Messias  by  the  people,  to 
be  hailed  as  a  deliverer  by  repentant  sinners,  to  be 
sincerely  thanked  by  the  sick  and  miserable  whom 
He  helped,  and  meantime  to  introduce  His  Apostles 
as  the  continuators  of  His  mission, — these  were  His 
only  purposes.  The  Twelve  were  ever  with  Him. 
His  most  intimate  teaching  was  for  them,  and  by  it 
they  were  won  to  closer  and  closer  ties  of  affection. 
Sometimes  He  sent  some  of  them  in  advance  to  pre- 
pare for  His  coming,  both  for  the  answering  of  ques- 
tions and  for  the  housing  and  comfort  of  the  whole 


284 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


44  Certain  women  who  had  been  healed 
of  infirmities." 


apostolate.  He  was  seldom  unaccompanied  by  a  great 
throng  of  men  and  women.  The  people  of  one  town 
would  follow  Him  nearly  or  quite  to  the  gates  of  an- 
other, singing  the  solemn  music  of  the  Hebrew  Psalms, 
or  pausing  to  listen  to  a  discourse  or  witness  a 
miracle. 

The  Evangelists  tell  us  that  a  band  of  women  had 
joined  our  Saviour's  Apostolate  and  accompanied  Him 
in  all  His  journeys.  No  wonder  that  they  did  so. 
He  was  woman's  emancipator.  It  is  Jesus  who  has 
made  the  wife  the  equal  of  the  husband,  it  is  He  who 
has  given  the  daughter  liberty  to  consecrate  herself 
to  charity  and  religion.  He  it  was  who  elevated 
motherhood  to  a  divine  dignity  in  Mary  of  Nazareth. 
Bringing  up  the  rear  of  His  picturesque  Oriental 
procession  and  riding  on  mules  would  be  seen  this 
party  of  women,  who  had  become  a  sort  of  organized 
body  among  the  Master's  following:  "  Certain  wo- 
men who  had  been  healed  of  evil  spirits  and 
infirmities,  Mary  who  is  called  Magdalen, 
out  of  whom  eeven  devils  were  gone  forth, 
and  Joanna,  the  wife  of  Chusa,  Herod's 
steward,  and  Susanna."  But  there  were 
others  who  had  taken  up  the  double  voca- 
tion of  serving  Jesus  and  His  Apostles  in 
their  domestic  life  and  forming  the  woman's 
part  of  the  apostleship  :  "And  many  others 
who  ministered  unto  Him  of  their  sub- 
stance." Was  Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus 
among  them  ?  Without  doubt ;  for  we  have 
St.  Luke's  account  of  her  asking  to 
see  Him  during  one  of  His  discourses, 
being  accompanied  at  the  time  by  the 
family  of^  her  kinswoman,  Mary  Cleo- 
phas.  If  she  is  not  named  among  the 


WOMEN  WHO  MINISTERED  TO  JESUS.  285 

women  who    usually   accompanied    our  Saviour,   this 
is  because  her  presence  was  taken   for  granted.     She 
must  have  been  these  women's  very  queen.     They  must 
have  sought  her  out  by  instinct  as  the  noblest 
of  their  sex,   and  have  honored  her  according 
to  her  station.     As  the  three  Synoptics  do  not 
make    any   more  detailed  mention    of   her  in 
this  connection,  we   are    left  to  conjecture   as 
to  how  closely  she   followed    our   L,ord.     Per- 
haps this  omission  was  by   an    understanding 
between    Mary    and    these    Evangelists.      But        JOANNA,  THE  WIFE  OF 
neither  the  high  office  of  Mary  as  Mother  of  CHUSA. 

Jesus,  nor  the  certainty  of  her  close  relationship  to 
some  of  the  women  named,  will  allow  us  to  suppose 
that  she  remained  alone  at  home.  Can  we  fancy  the 
Master  leaving  His  mother  at  Nazareth,  now  be-- 
come  a  most  uncongenial  abode  for  her?  Could  He 
gather  about  Him  a  band  of  ministering  women  and 
not  place  His  mother  at  their  head  ? 

Those  who  are  named  include  Salome,  the  mother 
of  James  and  John,  and  Mary  Cleophas,  either  Mary's 
sister  or  sister-in-law.  This  assemblage  made  part  of 
the  Messias'  community  of  "  many  women,"  the  origi- 
nal of  the  communities  of  sisters  and  of  nuns  which 
have  been  the  pride  of  the  Christian  Church  from  that 
day  to  this.  Without  the  aid  of  women  little  good 
has  ever  been  done  for  God  or  man,  and  in  Christ's 
Church  women's  work  and  women's  prayer  have  been 
an  organic  part  of  the  divine  plan  of  salvation.  Its 
life  is  a  corporate  one,  public,  fully  supported  by 
the  Church's  authority,  and  honored  by  God  with  an 
unbroken  succession  of  saints.  Not  less  useful  for 
God's  Church,  not  less  saintly,  has  been  the  vast 
multitude  of  women  whose  cloister  has  been  the  holy 
shrine  of  the  Christian  family.  As  wives  and  mothers, 


286  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST, 

or  as  virgins  living  in  the  midst  of  the  world,  Catho- 
lic women  are  the  mainstay  of  religion.  By  their 
generosity  to  works  of  charity,  by  their  unswerving 
loyalty,  by  their  patient  instruction  of  youth,  by  their 
pious  endurance  of  the  gross  vices  of  their  husbands, 
fathers,  and  brothers,  or  their  fervent  emulation  of 
the  virtues  of  the  men,  the  female  sex  has  shown  its 
gratitude  for  the  dignity  bestowed  upon  it  by  Christ  as 
well  as  its  worthiness  of  His  favors,  and  has  developed 
a  wonderful  capacity  for  varied  and  resourceful  re- 
ligious activity.  In  our  Saviour's  life  women  stand 
forth  in  heroic  prominence.  As  He  and  His  Apostles 
had  a  common  purse  and  lived  upon  the  charity  of 
the  people,  so  were  they  greatly  helped  by  the  presence 
and  zeal  of  this  association  of  women. 


MARY  CLEOPHAS. 


SENDING  FORTH  THE  TWELVE  APOSTLES. 


287 


CHAPTER   XXXIl. 

THE   SENDING    FORTH    OF    THE    TWELVE    APOSTLES. — 
THE    APOSTOLIC    VIRTUES. 

Matt.  iv.  23,  and  ix.  36-38,  andxi.  i  ;  Mark  vi.  7-13  ; 
Luke  viii.  I,  and  ix.  1-6. 

How  ardently  our  Saviour  must  have  longed  to 
be  everywhere  and  to  give  a  share  of  His  teaching  to 
everybody  !  "  And  seeing  the  multitudes  He  had 
compassion  on  them,  because  they  were  distressed  and 
lying  like  sheep  that  have  no  shepherd.  Then  He 
saith  to  His  disciples  :  The  harvest  indeed  is  great, 
but  the  laborers  are  few.  Pray  ye  therefore  the  I^ord 
of  the  harvest,  that  He  send  forth  laborers  into  His 

harvest."     Prayer  for  vocations   to    , 

the   Apostolic   ministry  is   here   in- 
culcated. 

Jesus  would  make  His  followers 
competent  harvesters  both  by  breath- 
ing His  own  spirit  into  them  and 
by  giving  them  the  lessons  of  per- 
sonal experience.  This  latter  meth- 
od of  forming  them  He  was  now 
the  more  anxious  to  begin  because 
He  was  soon  to  leave  Galilee  and 
its  favorably  disposed  people  for  the 
harder  field  of  Judea.  Hence  "  He 
sent  them,  two  and  two,  to  preach 
the  Kingdom  of  God  and  to  cure 
the  sick."  He  also  gave  them 
power  over  unclean  spirits.  But 
He  forbade  them  to  go  to  the  Gen- 
tiles or  the  Samaritans — they  were 
not  yet  fitted  to  contend  with  the 


THE    APOSTOLIC    CHARTER. 

And  having  called  his  twelve  disciples 
together,  he  gave  them  power  over  unclean 
spirits,  to  cast  them  out,  and  to  heal  all 
manner  of  diseases  and  all  manner  of  in- 
firmities. And  he  sent  them,  two  and  two, 
to  preach  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  to 
cure  the  sick.  These  twelve  Jesus  sent, 
commanding  them,  saying  :  Go  ye  not  into 
the  way  of  the  Gentiles,  and  into  the  cities 
of  the  Samaritans  enter  ye  not.  But  go  ye 
rather  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of 
Israel.  And  going  preach,  saying,  The 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand.  Heal  the 
sick,  raise  the  dead,  cleanse  the  lepers, 
cast  out  devils  ;  freely  have  you  received, 
freely  give.  And  he  commanded  them 
that  they  should  take  nothing  for  the 
journey,  but  a  staff  only.  Do  not  possess 
gold,  nor  silver,  nor  money  in  your  purses, 
nor  scrip  for  your  journey,  nor  bread, 
nor  two  coats,  nor  shoes,  but  to  be  shod 
with  sandals,  nor  a  staff,  for  the  workman 
is  worthy  of  his  hire.  And  into  whatsoever 
town  you  shall  enter,  inquire  who  in  it  is 
worthy  ;  and  there  abide  till  you  go  thence. 
And  when  you  come  into  the  house,  salute 
it,  saying  :  Peace  be  to  this  house.  And 
if  that  house  be  worthy,  your  peace  shall 
come  upon  it ;  but  if  it  be  not  worthy,  your 
peace  shall  return  to  you. 


288 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


difficulties  of   the   heathen   or  semi-heathen.     "But," 
said  He,   "  go  rather  to   the  lost   sheep  of  the  house 
of   Israel."      This   indicates  that  for  the  present  they 
were  to  confine  their  teaching  to  those  moral  precepts 
so   conspicuous   in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,    repen- 
tance  for   sin   and  the  love  of  God  and  one's  neigh- 
bor ;  they  were  to  avoid  what  would  arouse  the  Phari- 
sees ;    but   yet  announcing  the   formation   of  the   new 
brotherhood,     God's    Kingdom,    His    Church.     "And 
going,  preach,  saying,   The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at 
hand."     Then  He  adds  the  stupendous  words  :   "  Heal 
the  sick,  raise  the  dead,  cleanse  the   lepers,  cast  out 
devils."      His  closing  words   are   the  rule   of  poverty 
for    all   Christian   missionaries:    "Freely    [that   is    to 
say,  without  price]  have   you   received,  freely  give." 
Upon  this  point  He  enlarges,  outlining  the  Gospel 
way  of  behaving  when  one  stands  forth  as  the  proxy 
of  Jesus  Christ.     The  first  virtue  of  the  apostolic  man 
is  Apostolic  Poverty :  "And  He  commanded  them  that 
they  should   take    nothing    for    the 
journey,  but  a  staff  only.     Do   not 
possess  gold,  nor  silver,  nor  money 
in  your  purses,  nor  scrip  for  your 
journey,  nor  bread,  nor  two   coats, 
nor  shoes."     And  later  on,  in  a  re- 
petition of  this  same  charge  He  even 
takes   away  their  staff.     Never  was 
a  sterner  purpose  more  emphatically, 
almost  fiercely,  insisted  on  than  this 
of  Jesus  to  have  His  disciples  a  body 
of  men  entirely  detached   from  even 
the  ordinary  comforts  of  life.     It  is 
the  Gospel  rule  of  voluntary  poverty. 

He  sent  them,  two  and  two."  This  imPlies  His  rule  of  Apostolic 

Celibacy.     There  is  110  mention   of 


THE  APOSTOLIC  VIRTUES.  289 

home,  or  of  care  of  wife  or  child.  Indeed  nowhere 
in  the  entire  Gospel  history,  from  -the  preaching  of 
John  on  the  Jordan  till  that  of  Paul  in  Rome,  is 
the  family  life  of  union  with  wife  and  children 
named  in  connection  with  the  Apostles,  save  the 
cure  of  Peter's  mother-in-law.  How  could  a  man 
take  nothing  for  his  journey,  nor  possess  gold  and 
silver,  nor  provide  bread  or  clothing,  and  support 
his  wife  and  children?  As  to  Peter's  wife,  she  is 
nowhere  mentioned  first  or  last.  Could  she  be  living 
and  not  be  named  among  the  women  who  followed 
and  ministered  to  the  L,ord  ?  It  is  altogether  probable 
that  she  was  dead  when  Peter  was  called ;  also  that 
the  other  Apostles  were  and  continued  to  be  all  un- 
married men.  Thus  began,  as  one  form  of  detach- 
ment from  the  ordinary  joys  of  human  existence, 
the  institution  known  as  the  Celibacy  of  the  Clergy — 
an  Apostolic  institution  which  has  been  ever  since 
the  usual  rule  in  the  Christian  ministry.  Fulfilling 
such  requirements  of  their  Master,  Christian  mis- 
sionaries are  sure  of  winning  men's  hearts,  for  noth- 
ing but  the  foulest  hate  can  resist  teachers  whose  lives 
are  as  self-denying  as  their  doctrine  is  elevating. 

Another  Apostolic  virtue  inculcated  here  is  that 
of  Peacefulness.  Our  L,ord  gave  a  new  meaning  to 
the  Oriental  salutation,  Peace  be  to  this  house !  when 
pronounced  by  the  Ambassadors  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace.  But  this  peacefulness  was  too  often  met  by 
the  sword  :  "  I  came  not  to  send  peace  but  the  sword." 
The  Peace  of  Christ  provokes  the  sword  of  Christ's 
adversary.  The  Glad  Tidings  have  always  acted  on 
a  community  like  some  powerful  acid  which  detects 
and  separates  substances  in  solution — the  preaching 
of  the  Gospel  reveals  the  poison  in  men's  souls,  it 
divides  the  evil-minded  from  the  good,  it  elicits,  it 


290  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

provokes  persecution.  Our  Saviour  forbids  retaliation, 
even  resistance.  Yet  "  whosoever  shall  not  receive 
you  nor  hear  your  words,  going  forth  out  of  that 
house  or  city,  shake  off  even  the  dust  from  your 
feet,  for  a  testimony  against  them.  Amen,  I  say  to 
you,  it  shall  be  more  tolerable  for  the  land  of 
Sodom  and  Gomorrha  in  the  Day  of  Judgment  than 
for  that  city."  To  take  the  truth  of  Christ  or  leave 
it,  as  one  may  choose,  is  not  allowed.  Jesus  is  sensi- 
tive as  to  what  kind  of  reception  His  messengers  re- 
ceive. "He  that  receiveth  you,"  He  says  a  little 
further  on,  "  receiveth  Me,  and  he  that  receiveth  Me 
receiveth  Him  that  sent  Me."  Nor  does  He  hesitate 
to  claim  a  kindly  welcome  for  the  lowliest  representa- 
tives of  truth  and  virtue :  ' '  He  that  receiveth  a 
prophet  in  the  name  of  a  prophet,  hath  the  reward 
of  a  prophet ;  and  he  that  receiveth  a  just  man  in 
the  name  of  a  just  man,  shall  receive  the  reward 
of  a  just  man."  These  words  are  as  so  many  keys 
to  the  safety- vaults  of  the  devout  rich,  as  they 
are  a  promise  of  a  share  in  the  Apostolic  heritage 
for  all  who  help  to  spread  the  knowledge  and  love 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Together  with  the  Peacefulness  of 
the  Apostles'  message,  Jesus  inculcates  the  Spirit 
of  Martyrdom  :  I  arm  you  (as  if  He  had 
said)  with  the  olive  branch,  and  it  will  be 
beaten  out  of  your  hands  by  the  sword  of 
your  enemies.  Jesus  foretells  that  the  re- 
compense of  peace  shall  be  arraign- 
"-•^  nient  of  the  Apostles  and  their  suc- 
cessors before  Jewish  councils  and 
pagan  judges,  expulsion  from  the 
synagogues  and  the  family  circle — 
love  repaid  by  hate,  by  torture,  by 
death.  He  comforts  them  by  remind- 


SHOD  WITH  SANDALS. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  HERITAGE. 

ing  them  of  His  example.  Shall 
they  repine  at  being  called  disturbers 
of  the  peace  when  they  have  heard 
their  Master  called  Beelzebub? 

Confidence  in  God  is  to  be,  there- 
fore, another  distinguishing  trait 
of  the  Apostles.  L,et  them  fear 
neither  man  nor  devil,  neither  Phari- 
see nor  heathen,  but  boldly  and 
openly  attack  falsehood  and  vice, 
and  enforce  the  claims  of  divine 
truth,  giving  to  the  whole  world  the 
teaching  He  gave  them  in  His  many 
quiet  hours  of  communion  with 
them  :  What  if  they  do  kill  you  ? 
your  souls  they  cannot  hurt.  Your 
Father  in  Heaven,  who  lovingly 
cares  for  the  little  birds  which  sing 
His  praises  in  the  trees  and  hedges, 
will  He  not  safeguard  your  eternal 
welfare,  you  who  proclaim  His  Glad 
Tidings  of  salvation  to  the  whole 
world  ? 

Conscious  Union  with  the  Spirit 
of  Christ  is  another  Apostolic  charac- 
teristic. "  Every  one  that  shall  con- 
fess Me  before  men,  I  will  also  con- 
fess him  before  My  Father  who  is  in 
Heaven."  What  an  inspiration  to 
Apostolic  courage  —  that  as  the 
Apostle  proclaims  Christ  to  men, 
Christ  proclaims  the  Apostle  to  the 
Heavenly  Father !  The  Master  and 
the  disciple  thus  act  together.  "  I 
live,  now  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth 
in  me." 


THE  APOSTOLIC   HERITAGE. 

Behold  1  send  you  as  sheep  in  the  midst 
of  wolves.  Be  ye  therefore  wise  as  serpents 
and  simple  as  doves.  But  beware  of  men, 
for  they  will  deliver  you  up  in  councils,  and 
they  will  scourge  you  in  their  synagogues  ; 
and  you  shall  be  brought  before  governors 
and  before  kings  for  my  sake,  for  a  testi- 
mony to  them  and  to  the  Gentiles.  But 
when  they  shall  deliver  you  up,  take  no 
thought  how  or  what  to  speak,  for  it  shall 
be  given  you  in  that  hour  what  to  speak. 
For  it  is  not  you  that  speak,  but  the  Spirit 
of  your  Father  that  speaketh  in  you.  The 
brother  also  shall  deliver  up  the  brother  to 
death,  and  the  father  the  son,  and  the  chil- 
dren shall  rise  up  against  their  parents,  and 
shall  put  them  to  death.  And  you  shall  be 
hated  by  all  men  for  My  Name's  sake,  but 
he  that  shall  persevere  unto  the  end,  he  shall 
be  saved.  And  when  they  shall  persecute 
you  in  this  city,  flee  into  another.  Amen  I 
say  to  you,  you  shall  not  finish  all  the  cities 
of  Israel  till  the  Son  of  Man  come.  The 
disciple  is  not  above  the  master,  nor  the 
servant  above  his  lord.  It  is  enough  for  the 
disciple  that  he  be  as  his  master,  and  the 
servant  as  his  lord.  If  they  have  called  the 
good  man  of  the  house  Beelzebub,  how 
much  more  them  of  his  household  ?  There- 
fore fear  them  not.  For  nothing  is  covered 
that  shall  not  be  revealed,  nor  hid  that  shall 
not  be  known.  That  which  I  tell  you  in 
the  dark,  speak  ye  in  the  light,  and  that 
which  you  hear  in  the  ear,  preach  ye  upon 
the  housetops.  And  fear  ye  not  them  that 
kill  the  body,  and  are  not  able  to  kill  the 
soul,  but  rather  fear  him  that  can  destroy 
both  body  and  soul  into  hell.  Are  not  two 
sparrows  sold  for  a  farthing  ?  and  not  one 
of  them  shall  fall  to  the  ground  without 
your  Father.  But  the  very  hairs  of  your 
head  are  all  numbered .  Fear  not  therefore  ; 
better  are  you  than  many  sparrows.  Every 
one  therefore  that  shall  confess  me  before 
men,  I  will  also  confess  him  before  my 
Father  who  is  in  Heaven.  But  he  that 
shall  deny  me  before  men,  I  will  also  deny 
him  before  my  Father  who  is  in  Heaven. 
Do  not  think  that  I  came  to  send  peace  upon 
earth.  I  came  not  to  send  peace  but  the 
sword.  For  I  came  to  set  a  man  at  vari- 
ance against  his  father,  and  the  daughter 
against  her  mother,  and  the  daughter-in- 
law  against  her  mother-in-law.  And  a  man's 
enemies  shall  be  they  of  his  own  house- 
hold. He  that  loveth  father  or  mother 
more  than  me,  is  not  worthy  of  me  ;  and 
he  that  loveth  son  or  daughter  more  than 
me,  is  not  worthy  of  me.  And  he  that 
taketh  not  up  his  cross  and  followeth  me,  is 
not  worthy  of  me.  He  that  findeth  his  life 
shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  shall  lose  his  life 
for  me,  shall  find  it. 


292  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

This,  then,  is  the  Apostolic  Heritage.  It  is  all  SUEL 
marized  in  Zeal  for  Souls,  the  first  and  last  motive  of 
the  Apostle's  life.  In  his  case  every  other  virtue  is 
subsidiary  to  this  thirst  for  souls,  this  torment  of 
spirit  to  aid  Christ  the  Redeemer  in  seeking  and 
saving  sinners.  Detachment  from  worldly  goods  and 
from  the  privileges  and  the  joys  of  the  married  state, 
entire  self-immolation,  peacefulness  and  patience  under 
injuries,  the  spirit  of  martyrdom,  absolute  confidence 
in  Divine  Providence,  intimate  union  with  Christ 's 
Spirit  in  the  inner  life — all  are  inspired  by  love  of 
souls,  and  in  turn  intensify  the  Apostolic  thirst  to 
labor  and  to  suffer  for  men's  salvation.  This  love 
of  souls  is  the  love  of  Christ.  The  Apostle,  as  he 
loves  Christ,  loves  the  souls  of  men — more  than  race 
or  country,  father  or  mother  or  wife  or  child.  Zeal 
for  souls  is  pre-eminently  the  Apostolic  virtue.  We 
shall  find  our  Saviour  at  a  later  day  returning  to 
this  subject  on  occasion  of  sending  forth  the  seventy- 
two  disciples,  and  inculcating  in  much  the  same  terms 
the  very  same  Apostolic  traits  of  character  here  de- 
picted with  such  glowing  fervor.  After  His  address 
to  them,  Jesus,  we  may  not  doubt,  opened  wide  His 
arms  and  pressed  His  well-loved  Apostles  one  by  one  to 
His  bosom,  and  so  sent  them  forth.  As  they  set  out 
two  and  two  together  on  this  first  Apostolic  invasion 
of  the  realms  of  darkness,  Jesus  turned  to  the  mul- 
titude, and  pointing  after  them  with  tender  affection, 
exclaimed  :  ' '  Whosoever  shall  give  but  a  cup  of  cold 
water  to  one  of  these  My  little  ones  because  he  is  My 
disciple,  I  say  to  you  that  he  shall  not  go  with- 
out his  reward." 

Their  success  was  immediate,  both  as  teachers  and 
as  wonder-workers  :  * '  And  going  forth  they  preached 
that  men  should  do  penance,  and  they  cast  out  many 


PREACHING  OF  THE  APOSTLES.  293 

devils,  and  anointed  with  oil  many  that  were  sick, 
and  healed  them."  *  Meantime,  and  while  they  were 
thus  scattered  through  the  country  places,  Jesus  con- 
tinued His  own  preaching  in  the  towns  and  cities. 
"  And  it  came  to  pass  when  Jesus  had  made  an  end 
of  commanding  His  twelve  disciples,  He  passed  from 
thence  to  teach  and  preach  in  their  cities." 

This  preaching  of  the  Apostles  was  to  be  only  ex- 
perimental, a  part  of  their  training  for  the  work  to 
be  done  after  the  complete  organization  of  the  Church 
by  the  coming  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  it  had  its 
good  effects.  And  when  a  few  years  afterwards  these 
same  men,  wholly  perfected  and  transfigured,  shall 
again  appear  and  preach  the  Kingdom  of  God,  their 
present  mission  will  have  prepared  the  way.  Mean- 
time our  Saviour  soon  draws  them  back  to  His  com- 
pany, for  with  them  and  their  training  is  He  most 
particularly  concerned. 


*This  ceremony  was  doubtless  a  foreshadowing  of  that  consoling 
Sacrament  of  the  New  Law,  Extreme  Unction.  St.  James  (v.  14)  gives  in 
detail  the  form  and  substance  of  it  as  afterwards  instituted  by  Christ :  "  Is 
any  man  sick  among  you  ?  Let  him  bring  in  the  priests  of  the  Church,  and 
let  them  pray  over  him,  anointing  him  with  oil  in  the  name  of  the  Lord. 
And  the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save  the  sick  man  ;  and  the  Lord  shall  raise 
him  up :  and  if  he  be  in  sins,  they  shall  be  forgiven  him." 


294 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

THE     OPPOSITION    OF     THE     PHARISEES.  —  THE     BUND 
AND     DUMB    DEVIIy.  —  CHRIST     AND    BEELZEBUB.  — 

"BLESSED  is  THE  WOMB  THAT  BORE  THEE."  — 

THE    MOTHER    OP    JESUS    AND    HIS    BRETHREN. 

Matt.  xii.  22-50  ;  Mark  Hi.  22-35  ;  Luke  xi.  17-36, 
and  viii. 


MANY  of  the  Pharisees  had 
long  known  that  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth was  winning  the  people  to 
a  spirit  opposed  to  their  own, 
and  this  was  shown  conclusive- 
ly by  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
and  the  public  pardon  of  Mary 
Magdalen.  The  leading  class 
in  Israel,  the  Pharisees  and 
Scribes,  were  longing  for  the 
national  independence  of  their 
own  race,  and  Jesus  was  bent 
on  saving  all  mankind  from  sin  and  hell.  They 
were,  furthermore,  fanatically  addicted  to  outward  re- 
ligious observances  —  this  had  grown  to  be  the  supreme 
purpose  of  the  Mosaic  law  with  them  ;  Jesus  inces- 
santly inculcated  the  interior  virtues,  and  preached 
the  supremacy  of  God's  mercy.  He  knew  that  Israel 
had  run  its  course  as  a  secular  power,  and  that  He 
was  sent  to  use  its  best  spirits  for  a  new,  a  high,  a 
supernatural  career,  compared  with  which  the  glories 
of  David  and  Solomon  were  but  faint  suggestions  of 
the  divine  favor  to  man.  But  it  is  plain  that  the 
racial  traits  of  the  Jews,  their  love  of  pure  Hebrew 
blood  and  aversion  for  the  foreigner,  though  well 
calculated  to  carry  down  safely  the  promises  of  God 


TffE  OPPOSITION  OF  THE  PHARISEES. 


295 


and  to  make  sure  of  the  prophetic  identity  of  the 
Saviour,  were  hard  to  adjust  to  the  international  char- 
acter of  the  Christian  religion.  When  the  Gospel  of 
Christ,  therefore,  was  developed  so  fully  as  to  show 
its  incompatibility  with  the  racial  ambitions  of  the 
Pharisees,  these  agitators,  these  fierce  conspirators, 
set  to  work  to  destroy  the  Carpenter's  Son.  And 
from  now  on  to  the  end  this  purpose  gives  a  dark 
hour  to  every  day  in  the  life  of  our  Saviour.  They 
belittle  His  power,  they  malign  His  motives,  they 
accuse  Him  of  blasphemy,  of  disloyalty,  of  heresy. 
Unscrupulous  and  blood-thirsty,  they  are  beforehand 
with  Him  in  His  journeys,  sowing  calumnies  against 
Him.  They  seek  to  embroil  Him  with  popular 
prejudices,  to  implicate  Him  in  rebellion  against  the 
Roman  usurper. 

This  accounts   for   their   accusation  of  diabolism, 
when  on  arriving   at  Capharnaum  Jesus  exorcised  a 
man   possessed  of   a   blind   and    dumb   devil    so  that 
the  man  spoke    and  saw.     What  enraged  the   Phari- 
sees was  the  cry  of  the  people  :   * '  Is  not  this  the  Son 
of  David  ?     But  the  Pharisees  and  the  Scribes,  who 
were   come  down    from    Jerusalem,  said :  He  hath 
Beelzebub,  and  by  the  prince 
of    devils    He     casteth    out 
devils."     Jesus  turned  their 
dreadful    accusation    to   His 
own    account,    a  custom   of 
His  to  which  we  are  indebted 
for  some  of  His  best  instruc- 
tions.    He    called    the    peo- 
ple together,    and,    securing^ 
silence,    said  :     * '  How     can 
Satan  cast  out  Satan  ?     And 
if   a    kingdom     be     divided  "Sowing  calumnies  against  Him," 


296  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

against  itself,  that  kingdom  cannot  stand ;  and  if  a 
house  be  divided  against  itself,  that  house  cannot 
stand.  And  if  Satan  be  risen  up  against  himself,  he 
is  divided,  and  cannot  stand,  but  hath  an  end."  A 
little  good  sense,  calmly  spoken,  which  has  passed 
into  a  universal  maxim.  But  Jesus  drove  it  home  for 
His  supernatural  mission.  He  referred  to  the  exor- 
cisms of  the  Jewish  rabbis :  ' '  And  if  I  by  Beelzebub 
cast  out  devils,  by  whom  do  your  children  cast  them 
out?  Therefore  they  shall  be  your  judges.  But  if  I 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  cast  out  devils,  then  is  the  King- 
dom of  God  come  upon  you." 

What  follows  is  a  note  of  triumph  over  the 
demon.  Jesus  has  entered  into  this  poor  world  as 
into  Satan's  very  den,  has  stricken  him  a  mortal  blow, 
and  broken  the  fetters  from  his  victims'  limbs : 
* '  When  a  strong  man  armed  keepeth  his  court,  those 
things  are  in  peace  which  he  possesseth.  But  if  a 
stronger  than  he  come  upon  him,  and  overcome  him', 
he  will  take  away  all  his  armor  wherein  he  trusted, 
and  will  distribute  his  spoils."  "How  can  any  one 
enter  the  house  of  the  strong  and  rifle  his  goods,  un- 
less he  first  bind  the  strong  ?  and  then  he  will  rifle 
his  house."  And  upon  this  He  turns  to  His  friendly 
hearers  and  boldly  urges  an  open  display  of  their 
belief  in  Him ;  all  or  nothing  is  the  divine  demand : 
* '  He  that  is  not  with  Me  is  against  Me,  and  he  that 
gathereth  not  with  Me  scattereth."  And  then  to 
the  group  of  His  enemies  who  had  blasphemed  the 
Spirit  of  God  in  attributing  to  the  demon  the  cure  of 
the  man  possessed  :  "  Therefore  I  say  to  you,  every 
sin  and  blasphemy  shall  be  forgiven  men,  but  the 
blasphemy  of  the  Spirit  shall  not  be  forgiven.  And 
whosoever  shall  speak  a  word  against  the  Son  of  Man, 
it  shall  be  forgiven  him;  but  he  that  shall  speak 


THE  OPPOSITION  OF  THE  PHARISEES. 


297 


against  the  Holy  Ghost,  it  shall  not  be  forgiven  him, 
neither  in  this  world  nor  in  the  world  to  come.  Be- 
cause they  said,  He  hath  an  unclean  spirit.  Either 
make  the  tree  good  and  its  fruit  good,  or  make  the 
tree  evil  and  its  fruit  evil.  For  by  the  fruit  the 
tree  is  known. " 

This  is  one  of  those  reverent  tributes  which  Jesus 
pays  to  the  Divine  Spirit,  only  paralleled  by  His 
loving  and  obedient  homage  to  His  Father.  The 
Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Spirit 
are  everywhere  in  the  Gospel, 
working  and  speaking  by  the  or- 
gan of  the  Son  made  Man.  No- 
thing is  clearer  than  the  father- 
hood of  the  Deity,  the  divine  son- 
ship  of  Jesus,  the  overruling  pre- 
sence of  the  Holy  Ghost,  each  dis- 
tinct from  the  others,  and  all  three 
one  in  essence,  in  being,  in  deity. 
The  crime  of  rejecting  the  Son, 
hateful  though  it  be,  is  outranked 
by  that  of  rejecting  the  Spirit  that 
is  in  the  Son,  blinding  one's  self 
wilfully  to  the  good  actually  before 
one's  eyes,  first  opposing  a  messen- 
ger of  God  and  finally  opposing 
everything  he  does,  no  matter  how 
good.  It  is  to  pass  from  befouling 
the  king's  standard  to  personally 
insulting  the  king  himself.* 


OUTWARD  RELIGIOUS  OBSERVANCES. 


*  St.  Augustine  calls  attention  to  the  glimpse  of  future  states  of  par- 
don and  punishment  given  by  our  Saviour  in  the  words  just  quoted.  For, 
says  the  saint  in  substance,  how  can  there  be  pardon  in  the  next  life,  except 
in  Purgatory  ?  Jesus  here  assumes  in  His  hearers  the  belief  in  a  middle 
state  of  souls,  those  who  are  yet  making  amends  ere  they  can  be  called 
to  heaven — a  belief  then  as  now  universal  among  the  Jews. 


298 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


FORM  OF  ASKING  FAVORS 


Then  follows  a  terrible  arraignment  of  the  evil 
tongues  and  hearts  of  Jesus'  enemies  :  "  O  generation 
of  vipers,  how  can  you  speak  good  things,  whereas 
you  are  evil  ?  for  out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart 
the  mouth  speaketh.  A  good  man  out  of  a 
good  treasure  bringeth  forth  good  things,  and 
an  evil  man  out  of  an  evil  treasure  bringeth 
forth  evil  things."  And  He  then  affirms  the 
responsibility  of  ordinary  mortals  for  even 
trifling  sins  of  speech :  what  shall  be  the  torment  of 
those  who  revel  in  blasphemy  and  calumny  ?  ' l  But 
I  say  unto  you,  that  every  idle  word  that  men  shall 
speak,  they  shall  render  an  account  for  in  the  day 
of  judgment.  For  by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  justi- 
fied, and  by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  condemned." 
Let  us  apply  this  terrible  test  to  ourselves.  It  was 
the  Pharisees'  hard  words  from  their  hard  hearts, 
their  pitiless  pursuit  of  violators  of  minute  laws,  and 
their  habit  of  sitting  in  judgment  on  others  that 
caused  our  gentle  Saviour  to  single  them  out  for 
condemnation — and  the  same  faults  will,  perhaps,  bring 
upon  us  the  same  fate.  Even  the  idle  words  of  a 
bitter  soul  spread  misery  around,  not  only  among 
enemies  but  even  among  friends. 

"Master,"  said  some  one,  "we  would  have  a 
sign  from  Thee  " — meaning  a  sign  in  the  heavens.  It 
was  a  challenge  to  Him  to  emulate  Samuel,  who  had 
made  the  thunder  roll ;  or  Elias,  who  had  called 
down  fire  from  heaven ;  or  Josue,  who  had  caused  the 
sun  to  stand  still.  But  Jesus  would  not  reward  wil- 
ful incredulity  with  preternatural  arguments.  He 
would  cleave  the  heavens  and  ascend  into  them  at 
the  end  of  His  sojourn  on  earth.  But  before  open- 
ing the  gates  of  the  skies  at  His  Ascension,  He  will 
first  conquer  death,  the  fell  prince  of  the  tonib.  He 


THE  OPPOSITION  OF  THE  PHARISEES. 


299 


accordingly  answered:  "An  evil  and  adulterous  gen- 
eration seeketh  a  sign,  and  a  sign  shall  not  be  given 
it,  but  the  sign  of  Jonas  the  prophet.  For  as  Jonas 
was  in  the  whale's  belly  three  days  and  three  nights, 
so  shall  the  Son  of  Man  be  in  the  heart  of  the  earth 
three  days  and  three  nights."  And  He  reproached 
them  with  the  example  of  the  Ninevites  :  ' '  For  as 
Jonas  was  a  sign  to  the  Ninevites,  so  shall  the  Son 
of  Man  be  also  to  this  generation.  The  men  of 
Nineve  shall  rise  in  judgment  with  this  generation, 
and  shall  condemn  it,  because  they  did  penance  at 
the  preaching  of  Jonas,  and  behold  a  greater  than 
Jonas  here.  The  Queen  of  the  South  shall  rise  in 
judgment  with  this  generation  and  shall  condemn 
it,  because  she  came  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to 
hear  the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  behold  a  greater  than 
Solomon  here."  The  heavenly  Father  had  made  Jesus 
the  light  of  the  world :  ' (  No  man  lighteth  a  candle 
and  putteth  it  in  a  hidden  place  nor  under  a  bushel, 
but  upon  a  candlestick,  that  they  that  come  in 
may  see  the  light." 

Wilful  blindness  to  the  light  on  the  part  of  a 
Jew,  a  servant    of    God,  was   a   more    grievous 
offence  than  that  of  the   heathen.     Our   Saviour 
shows   this   by   a  picture    of  the  added   ferocity 
of  the   demon   again  assaulting  and   again  over- 
coming one  who  had  previously  expelled  him*: 
' '  And    when    an    unclean   spirit   is   gone    out 
of    a    man,  he    walketh    through    dry   places, 
seeking  rest,  and  findeth  none.     Then  he  saith, 
I  will  return  into  my  house  from  whence  I 
came  out.     And  coming  he  findeth  it  empty, 
swept   and  garnished.     Then   he  goeth  and 
taketh  with   him    seven    other    spirits   more 
wicked  than  himself,  and  they  enter  in  and 


"We  would  have  a  sign 
from  Thee." 


300  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

dwell  there,  and  the  last  state  of  that  man  is  worse 
than  the  first.  So  shall  it  be  also  to  this  wicked 
generation." 

A  woman  in  the  crowd,  eagerly  listening  to  this 
powerful  eloquence,  was  rapt  into  a  sort  of  ecstatic 
envy  of  her  who  was  privileged  to  be  the  Mother  of 
Jesus,  and  she  cried  out:  "Blessed  is  the  womb 
that  bore  Thee,  and  the  breasts  that  gave  Thee 
suck."  Jesus  answered  :  "  Yea  rather,  blessed  are  they 
that  hear  the  word  of  God  and  keep  it."  The  stream 
of  His  zeal  was  at  the  moment  running  strong  for 
interior  union  with  God  and  bore  along  with  it  His 
answer.  Mary  the  Mother  of  Jesus  was  first  saluted 
by  the  angel  as  full  of  grace,  and  on  that  account  the 
Holy  Ghost  chose  her  to  be  Mother  of  the  Messias. 
Not  the  womb  nor  the  breasts  nor  the  royal  blood, 
but  the  sanctity  of  soul  in  that  greatest  among  women 
entitled  her  to  be  called  blessed.  And  every  soul 
must  hearken  to  God  and  obey  and  love  Him ;  other- 
wise whatever  blessed  office  it  may  have  will  rest  upon 
it  as  jewels  upon  a  corpse.  It  was  because  Mary  had 
first  conceived  the  Son  of  God  in  her  soul  that  she 
was  chosen  to  conceive  Him  in  her  womb. 

Returning  to  the  mystery  of  evil  in  the  Pharisees 
Jesus  thus  explained  it:  "If  thine  eye  be  single  thy 
whole  body  shall  be  lightsome.  But  if  thine  eye 
be  evil  thy  body  shall  be  in  darkness."  The  eye 
of  the  soul  is  the  intention.  What  did  these  men 
mean  by  their  hostility  to  Jesus  ?  They  meant  am- 
bition, lyust  of  power  was  their  passion.  Their  soul's 
eye  was  bloodshot  with  the  violence  of  their  impulse  to 
rule.  Hence  hate,  lying,  treachery,  and  they  ended 
with  deicide  ;  all  the  while  they  assumed  the  air  of  de- 
votees to  the  faith  of  Israel.  "Take  heed  therefore 
that  the  light  which  is  in  thee  be  not  darkness. 


THE  OPPOSITION  OF  THE  PHARISEES. 


301 


If  then  thy  whole  body  be  lightsome,  having  no  part 
of  darkness,  the  whole  shall  be  lightsome,  and  as  a 
bright  lamp  shall  enlighten  thee." 

Meantime,  "As  He  was  yet  speaking  to  the  mul- 
titudes, behold  His  Mother  and  His  brethren  stood 
without  seeking  to  speak  to  Him" — to  call  Him,  per- 
haps, to  His  forgotten  nourishment,  or  to  keep  some 
appointment.  We  have  already  seen  that  Mary  must 
have  been  in  the  company  of  her  Son  since  He  began 
His  public  life.  Her  household  would  include  her 
nieces  and  nephews,  numbered  among  the  disciples 
of  Jesus  and  named  His  brothers  and  sisters  by  Jewish 
custom.  This  public  occasion  was  chosen  by  Him  to 
show  the  universality  of  His  kinship,  being  no  less 
affectionate  by  the  grace  of  God  than  by  the  closest 
natural  ties  :  ' '  Who  is  My  mother,  and  who  are  My 
brethren  ?  And  stretching  forth  His  hand  towards  His 
disciples,  He  said :  Behold  My  mother  and  My  breth- 
ren. For  whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of  My  Father 
that  is  in  heaven,  he  is  My  brother  and  sister  and 
mother." 

Compare  this  with  the  words  addressed  by  Jesus 
from  the  Cross  to  Mary  and 
John,  and  you  have  the  whole 
mind  of  Jesus  on  the  relation 
we  bear  to  His  blood  rela- 
tions, and  especially  to  Mary. 
The  divine  sonship  is  ours  by 
union  with  Christ,  and  this 
comes  through  the  motherhood 
of  Mary ;  again,  His  brother- 
hood with  us  is  brought  about 
by  the  same  instrumentality. 
It  is  one  of  the  curiosities  of 
religious  error  that  these  words  WASHING  BEFORE  MEAT. 


I 


302  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

of  Jesus,  which  really  elevate  us  to  a  family  union 
with  Himself  and  His  mother,  should  have  been  per- 
verted to  mean  His  publicly  belittling  His  beloved 
mother  to  the  place  of  an  ordinary  parent.  If  faith 
be  "the  root  and  foundation  of  all  righteousness," 
then  is  Mary  the  choicest  fruit  of  faith,  for  she  free- 
ly believed  God's  messenger  with  a  simpler  trust  and 
concerning  a  far  higher  mystery  than  did  Abraham, 
the  father  of  all  the  faithful.  If  love  be  the  fulness 
of  all  righteousness,  then  is  Mary  superior  to  all  her 
fellow- mortals,  for  her  love  is  that  of  the  most  perfect 
mother  for  a  Divine  Son0 


«« Behold  My  brethren." 


TEACHING  B  Y  PARABLES.  303 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

TEACHING  BY  PARABLES.  —  THE  SOWER.  —  THE  CANDLE. 
—  THE  MUSTARD-SEED.  —  THE  I^EAVEN.  —  THE 
COCKLE.  —  THE  HIDDEN  TREASURE.  —  THE  PEARI, 
OF  GREAT  PRICE.  —  THE  NET.  —  NEW  THINGS  AND 


Matt.  xiii.  1—53  ;  Mark  iv.  1—34  ;  Luke  viii.  4,  i8y  and 
xiii.  18—21. 

JESUS  made  an  end  of  reproaching  His  enemies  and 
of  disclosing  their  evil  motives.  He  rested  for  a  time 
with  His  disciples  and  then  journeyed  along  the  lake 
shore.  The  peaceful  country-side,  the  clear  waters,  the 
beautiful  sky,  shed  peace  like  a  gentle  dew  upon  the 
hearts  of  all. 

As  the  Master  resumed  His  regular  teaching,  He 
developed  a  style  of  instruction  peculiarly  His  own; 
and  it  is  that  of  all  teachers  who  faithfully  pattern  on 
Him  :  He  taught  in  parables.  His  discourses  were 
pictures  of  men  and  things  named  for  His  doctrines, 
as  in  a  theatre  the  players  are  named  for  the  char- 
acters they  personate.  The  imagination  is  the  picture- 
book  of  the  soul,  the  theatre  of  the  intelligence,  the 
account-  book  of  the  conscience.  Hence  the  sermons 
of  Jesus  are  pictured  truth  and  virtue.  Not  all  the 
poets  of  the  world  have  gained  so  high  a  power  over 
men's  imagination  as  Jesus  Christ.  The  poetry  of 
the  Old  Testament,  easily  best  in  all  literature  of 
the  ancients,  is  surpassed  in  simple  grandeur  by  the 
Good  Samaritan  and  the  Prodigal  Son.  It  is  in 
the  poetry  of  songs  and  legends  that  the  world  learns 
the  best  human  wisdom,  and  in  the  parables  of  Christ 
the  truest  religion. 


304  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Furthermore,  the  parables  of  Jesus  set  men  dis- 
cussing, for  they  were  often  a  sort  of  riddles,  to  be 
solved  only  after  some  guessing ;  and  this  deepened 
the  lesson.  Our  Saviour's  immediate  disciples,  how- 
ever, had  not  so  great  a  need  of  the  parables,  for 
to  them  were  given  His  constant  care,  His  incessant 
teaching ;  it  was  theirs  ' '  to  know  the  mystery  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God;  but  to  others  in  parables." 
Jesus  draws  His  figures  from  every  familiar  scene  and 
object — fishermen  and  farmers  at  work,  money-lenders 
and  their  debtors,  kings  and  their  armies,  the  birds 
in  the  air  and  the  grass  in  the  fields,  the  trees  in  the 
orchard,  the  vineyard  and  its  keeper  and  laborers,  the 
busy  housewife  making  bread,  the  lucky  treasure- 
finder.  His  purpose  in  all  this  He  summed  up  in 
answer  to  one  of  their  questions :  ' '  And  His  dis- 
ciples came  and  said  to  Him  :  Why  speakest  Thou  to 
them  in  parables  ?  Who  answered  and  said  to  them : 
Because  to  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mysteries  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  but  to  them  it  is  not  given. 
For  he  that  hath,  to  him  shall  be  given,  and  he 
shall  abound  ;  but  he  that  hath  not,  from  him  shall 
be  taken  away  that  also  which  he  hath.  Therefore, 
do  I  speak  to  them  in  parables,  because  seeing  they 
see  not,  and  hearing  they  hear  not,  neither  do  they 
understand.  And  the  prophecy  of  Isaias  is  fulfilled 
in  them,  who  saith  :  By  hearing  you  shall  hear,  and 
shall  not  understand ;  and  seeing  you  shall  see,  and  shall 
not  perceive.  For  the  heart  of  this  people  is  grown  gross, 
and  with  their  ears  they  have  been  dull  of  hearing \  and 
their  eyes  they  have  shut,  lest  at  any  time  they  should  see 
with  their  eyes,  and  hear  with  their  ears,  and  under- 
stand with  their  heart,  and  be  converted  and  I  should 
heal  them.  But  blessed  are  your  eyes  because  they 
see,  and  your  ears  because  they  hear.  For  Amen  I 


TEACHING  BY  PARABLES. 


305 


say  to  you,  many  prophets  and  just  men  have  desired 
to  see  the  things  that  you  see,  and  have  not  seen 
them,  and  to  hear  the  things  that  you  hear,  and  have 
not  heard  them." 


THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  SOWER. 


The  crowd  surged  about  Him  so 
thickly  that  He  again  chose  a  boat 
for  His  pulpit,  one  belonging,  doubt- 
less, to  His  Apostles,  which  may 
have  followed  His  movements  along 
the  shore. 

To  the  Apostles  Jesus  gave  a 
special  explanation  of  this  parable 
in  sentences  of  wonderful  force. 
What  can  exceed  in  power  His 
statement  (given  afterwards  in  ex- 
plaining the  parable  of  the  wheat 
and  the  cockle)  of  the  universality 
of  His  religion  :  ' '  Now  the  sower 
is  the  Son  of  Man,  and  the  field  is 
the  world."  He  also  explains  the 
hardness  of  heart,  trampled  like  the 
wayside  path  by  every  worldly  de- 
sire, hardly  conscious  of  hearing  the 
truth,  soon  to  lose  it  altogether  by 
the  unclean  birds,  the  evil  spirits. 
The  flippant  worldling,  superficial, 
giddy,  receives  the  word  with  joy, 
as  he  does  the  latest  fashion  of  dress 
or  amusement — only  to  cast  it  away 
for  some  newer  sensation.  The  man 
who  is  absorbed  in  gain,  or  in  am- 
bition— ''he  heareth  the  word,  and 
the  care  of  this  world  and  the  de- 


"HEAR  THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  SOWER." 
And  again  he  began  to  teach  by  the  sea- 
ide,  and  a  great  multitude  was  gathered 
ogether  unto  him,  so  that  he  went  up  into 
a  ship  and  sat  in  the  sea ;  and  all  the  mul- 
itude  was  upon  the  land  by  the  sea-side. 
And  he  taught  them  many  things  in  par- 
ables, and  said  unto  them  in  his  doctrine  : 
Hear  ye !  Behold,  the  sower  went  out  to 
sow,  and  whilst  he  soweth,  some  fell  by 
the  wayside,  and  the  birds  of  the  air  came 
and  ate  it  up.  And  other  some  fell  among 
stony  ground,  where  it  had  not  much  earth, 
and  it  shot  up  immediately,  because  it  had 
no  depth  of  earth.  And  when  the  sun  was 
risen  it  was  scorched,  and  because  it  had  no 
root  it  withered  away.  And  some  fell 
among  thorns,  and  the  thorns  grew  up  and 
choked  it,  and  it  yielded  no  fruit.  And 
some  fell  upon  good  ground,  and  brought 
forth  fruit  that  grew  up  and  increased  and 
yielded,  one  thirty,  another  sixty,  and  an- 
other a  hundred.  And  he  said  :  He  that 
hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear.  And  he 
saith  to  them  :  Are  you  ignorant  of  this 
parable  ?  and  how  shall  you  know  all  par- 
ables ?  Hear  you  therefore  the  parable  of 
the  sower.  When  any  one  heareth  the 
word  of  the  Kingdom,  and  understandeth 
it  not,  there  cometh  the  wicked  one,  and 
catcheth  away  that  which  was  sown  in  his 
heart ;  this  is  he  that  receiveth  the  seed  by 
the  wayside.  And  he  that  receiveth  the 
seed  on  stony  ground,  this  is  he  that  hear- 
eth the  word,  and  immediately  receiveth  it 
with  joy.  Yet  hath  he  not  root  in  himself, 
but  is  only  for  a  time,  and  when  there 
ariseth  tribulation  and  persecution  because 
of  the  word,  he  is  presently  scandalized. 
And  he  that  receiveth  the  seed  among 
thorns,  is  he  that  heareth  the  word,  and 
the  care  of  this  world,  and  the  deceitfulness 
of  riches,  and  the  lusts  after  other  things, 
[these]  choke  up  the  word,  and  he  be- 
comech  fruitless.  But  he  that  receiveth  the 
seed  upon  good  ground,  this  is  he  that  hear- 
eth the  word,  and  understandeth,  and  bear- 
eth  fruit,  and  yieldeth,  the  one  a  hundred- 
fold, another  sixty,  and  another  thirty. 


3o6 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


THE   SOWER. 


ceitfulness  of  riches  choke  up  the  word  and 
he  becometh  fruitless."  But  the  good  ground, 
yielding  manifold  fruits  of  virtue  and  of  joy. 
is  the  heart  that  hears  the  truth,  reasons  it  out 
and  understands  it,  and  quickly  puts  its  pre- 
cepts into  practice.  The  man  of  good  will  and 
of  good  sense  is  the  rich  field  of  God's  harvest. 
If  men  try  to  run  over  such  a  one  with  their 
worldly  maxims,  he  stands  his  ground  and 
guards  his  fences.  If  the  evil  one  would  sug- 
gest doubts,  he  falls  back  on  holy  faith  and 
is  loyal  to  his  teacher ;  if  the  foul  humors  of 
the  flesh  would  smother  the  good  seed  with 
weeds  and  thorns  of  sensual  vice  and  greed  of  money, 
he  puts  his  heel  upon  his  animal  nature  and  gives 
his  better  self  fair  play. 

Meantime  our  Saviour  says  a  word  of  comfort  for 
those  who  are  anxious  about  their  co-operation  with 
God's  grace :  God  does  His  work  in  our  hearts  silent- 
ly. He  is  not  only  the  sower,  He  is  the  fertility  of 
the  soil,  and  the  warmth  of  the  sunshine,  and  the 
moisture  of  the  gentle  rain.  For  us  to  be  able  to  will 
and  to  do,  is  all  His  gift.  Patience  is  to  be  our 
virtue,  as  well  as  sound  reason  and  obedience.  We 
need  not  go  out  and  strive  to  measure  the  daily  growth 
of  the  grain ;  we  cannot  see  the  root,  nor  its  mys- 
terious union  with  the  soil — that  is  to  say,  we  cannot 
know  how  these  good  thoughts  grow  into  firm  roots 
of  virtuous  conduct.  God  cares  for  that  ;  let  us  give 
Him  our  hearts,  and  we  may  then  securely  labor  to 
help  Him.  "  So  is  the  Kingdom  of  God  as  if  a  man," 
said  Jesus,  "  should  cast  seed  into  the  earth,  and 
should  sleep  and  rise,  night  and  day  ;  and  the  seed 
should  spring  and  grow  up  whilst  he  knoweth  not. 
For  the  earth  of  itself  bringeth  forth  fruit,  first  the 


TEACHING  BY  PARABLES. 


307 


blade,  then  the  ear,  afterwards  the  full  grain  in  the 
ear.  And  when  the  fruit  is  brought  forth,  immedi- 
ately he  putteth  in  the  sickle,  because  the  harvest  is 
come."  Experience  proves  that  no  man  works  so 
quickly  for  God  and  so  efficaciously  as  one  whose 
main  endeavor  is  to  suppress  self-will.  And  if 
some  will  make  this  doctrine  an  excuse  for  spiritual 
sloth,  it  none  the  less  remains  true  ;  it  is  at  once  the 
wheels  and  the  brake  of  the  chariot 
of  the  true  Christian.  Ending  this 
parable  of  the  Sower  and  the  Seed, 
the  Lord  admonished  His  Apostles  to 
spread  the  light  which  beamed  from 
these  bright  lessons. 

"And  He   said  to  them:  Doth  a 
candle  come  in  to    be   put   under   a 
bushel  or  under  a  bed  ?  and  not  to 
be  set  on  a  candlestick  ?     For  there  is 
nothing  hid  which  shall   not   be  made 
manifest,  neither  was  it  made  secret,  but 
that  it  may  come  abroad.     If  any  man 
hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear."     He 
enforced  this  urgent  appeal  to  their  zeal 
by  reminding  them  that  all   truth  and 
virtue  is    common  property    in   God's 
family  ;  it  is  bestowed  only  to  be  given 
forth  again  ;  and  this  is  a  condition  of 
its  further  possession  by  every  recipient. 
"And  He  said   to   them:    Take   heed 
what   you   hear.     In  what    measure   you 
shall  mete,  it   shall   be  measured  to  you 
again,   and  more  shall  be  given   to   you. 
For  he  that  hath,  to  him  shall  be  given, 
and  he  that  hath  not,  that  also  which  he 
thinketh  he  hath,  shall  be  taken  from  him. ' ' 


3o8  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

THE    GRAIN    OP  MUSTARD-SKED. 

The  action  of  God's  truth  upon  the  public  life  of 
humanity,  the  influence  of  the  Church  over  nations, 
her  gradual  growth  into  the  dominating  institution 
of  the  world,  the  contrast  between  her  feeble  begin- 
nings and  her  final  universal  triumph — all  this  Jesus 
teaches  in  the  prophetic  parable  of  the  mustard-seed. 
The  maiden  of  Nazareth  bore  in  her 


IT    BECOMETH    A    TREE. 

The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like  to  a     arms  a  little  Infant  whose  shoulders 

grain  of  mustard-seed  which  a  man  took 
and  sowed  in  his  field.  Which  is  the  least 
indeed  of  all  seeds  :  but  when  it  is  grown 
up,  it  is  greater  than  all  herbs,  and  be- 
cometh  a  tree,  and  shooteth  out  great 
branches,  so  that  the  birds  of  the  air  come 
and  dwell  in  the  shadow  and  under  the 
branches  thereof. 


grew  into  the  prop  of  the  whole 
world.  A  group  of  humble  fisher- 
men scattered  themselves  over  the 
proud  empire  of  Rome  and  mastered 
it  completely.  Apply  the  lesson  to 
personal  conduct  :  a  little  word  spoken  lightly  in  con- 
versation by  a  Catholic  friend  sinks  into  a  bigoted 
soul,  and  in  a  few  years  it  has  grown  up  into  the 
true  religion  of  Christ. 


LEAVEN. 

In  another  place  our  Saviour  warns  His  disciples 
to  '  '  beware  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees,  '  '  mean- 
ing their  false  doctrine.  But  if  evil  breeds  evil,  so  does 
good  breed  good.  If  a  good  man  is  placed  with  non- 
Christians  by  the  will  of  God  —  that  is  to  say,  by  his 
state  of  life  —  by  the  inspirations  of  holy  zeal,  by 
providential  circumstances  of  family,  fellow-citizen- 
ship, social  intercourse,  or  business  connection,  he 
becomes  a  powerful  centre  for  good.  He  is  to  his  sur- 
roundings what  the  Church  is  to  the  world.  All  this 
is  taught  by  our  Lord's  parable  :  "  The  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  like  to  leaven  which  a  woman  took  and 
hid  in  three  measures  of  meal  until  the  whole  was 
leavened."  How  surely  were  those  words  meant  for 
us,  and  for  these  days  of  error  and  vice  ;  we  Catholics 


TEACHING  £  Y  PARABLES.  309 

are  the  leaven  of  the  great  modern  world.  Our  non- 
Catholic  people,  having  many  natural  virtues,  are 
like  good  flour,  making  sweet  and  wholesome  bread 
if  only  leavened  with  the  true  religion. 

THE    COCKLE    AND    THE    WHEAT. 

An  interesting   phase  of  the   mystery  of  evil   is  the 
presence  of  the  bad  among  the  good  in  the  Kingdom 
of   Christ   on  earth.     If   the   good    Catholic   be   good 
leaven   to  the  non- Catholic,  a   bad  Catholic   is  poison 
to  his  non-Catholic  neighbors.     He  associates  the  name 
of  Catholic  with   drunkenness   and  with   debauchery, 
the    sacraments    and    the    Holy   Sacrifice   with    blas- 
pheming and  adultery,  the  true  faith  with  bribery  and 
political   corruption.     For    a   while   he   can    play   the 
hypocrite   and    is   a   wolf  in   sheep's    clothing.      But 
he   is  often   detected,  and   then   he  clothes   the  Bride 
of   the    Lamb    in    his  wolf's    skin.     What    shall    be 
done  with  him  ?     Expel  him  from  the  Church  ?     Brand 
him  as  a  spiritual  outlaw  ?     Do  that,  and  his  innocent 
family  suffers  more  than  he  does,  his  private  vice  be- 
comes matter  for  scandalous  public 
discussion,  and  perhaps  he  is  thrown 
into  despair.     Our  Saviour's  way  is 
the  best.     Admonitions  and  reproofs 
have  their  uses  and  may  frequently 
be   applied   with   good   results,  but 
when    all   this  is  done   the   scandal 
must  yet  be  borne  and  the  remedy 
left  to  God.     May  we  not  merge  our 
indignation  against   scandalous  sin- 
ners into  terror  at  God's  final  judg- 
ment upon  them?     God   can   afford 
to    wait — cannot    we    do    so?     But 
Jesus  knew  how  sorely  good  souls 


WAIT    TILL    THE    HARVEST. 

The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like  to  a 
man  that  sowed  good  seed  in  his  field. 
But  while  men  were  asleep,  his  enemy 
came  and  oversowed  cockle  among  the 
wheat,  and  went  his  way.  And  when  the 
blade  was  sprung  up,  and  had  brought  forth 
fruit,  then  appeared  also  the  cockle.  And 
the  servants  of  the  good  man  of  the  house 
coming,  said  to  him  :  Sir,  didst  thou  not 
sow  good  seed  in  thy  field  ?  Whence  then 
hath  it  cockle  ?  And  he  said  to  them,  An 
enemy  hath  done  this.  And  the  servants 
said  to  him,  Wilt  thou  that  we  go  and 
gather  it  up  ?  And  he  said,  No,  lest  per- 
haps gathering  up  the  cockle,  you  root  up 
the  wheat  also  together  with  it.  Suffer 
both  to  grow  until  the  harvest,  and  in  the 
time  of  the  harvest  I  will  say  to  the  reap- 
ers, Gather  up  first  the  cockle  and  bind  it 
into  bundles  to  burn,  but  the  wheat  gather 
ye  into  my  barn. 


3*6  LIFE  OF  JESVS  CHRIST. 

are  tried  by  the  filthy  sinners  with  whom  they  must 
live,  and  therefore  He  expounded  this  parable  more  ful- 
ly in  private  to  His  disciples,  painting  therein  one  of 
His  vivid  pictures  of  the  end  of  the  world.  "  Then 
having  sent  away  the  multitudes,  He  came  into  the 
house,  and  His  disciples  came  to  Him,  saying :  Kx- 
pound  to  us  the  parable  of  the  cockle  in  the  field. 
Who  made  answer  and  said  to  them :  He  that  soweth 
the  good  seed  is  the  Son  of  Man,  and  the  field  is  the 
world  ;  and  the  good  seed  are  the  children  of  the  king- 
dom, and  the  cockle  are  the  children  of  the  wicked 
one ;  and  the  enemy  that  sowed  them  is  the  devil. 
But  the  harvest  is  the  end  of  the  world,  and  the  reap- 
ers are  the  angels.  Even  as  cockle,  therefore,  is  gath- 
ered up  and  burnt  with  fire,  so  shall  it  be  at  the  end 
of  the  world.  The  Son  of  Man  shall  send  His  angels, 
and  they  shall  gather  out  of  His  kingdom,  all  scan- 
dals, and  them  that  work  iniquity,  and  shall  cast  them 
into  the  furnace  of  fire ;  and  there  shall  be  weeping 
and  gnashing  of  teeth.  Then  shall  the  just  shine  as 
the  sun,  in  the  kingdom  of  their  Father.  He  that 
hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear." 

THE   HIDDEN   TREASURE. 

The  learned  are  not  agreed  on  the  relative  order 
of  these  parables,  but  we  know  that  their  purpose 
was  to  enforce  the  great  principles  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount.  One  of  these  is  absolute  surrender  to 
God,  full  acknowledgment  and  entire  acceptance  of 
the  supremacy  of  God  in  all  things.  Jesus  illustrates 
this:  "  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like  unto  a  treas- 
ure hidden  in  a  field,  which  a  man  having  found,  hid 
it,  and  for  joy  thereof,  goeth  and  selleth  all  that  he 
hath  and  buyeth  that  field."  True  conversion  to  God 
is  the  joy  of  sudden  riches — one  hardly  dares  tell  of 


TEACHING  BY  PARABLES. 


3" 


it  lest  it  should  prove  a  dream,  so  strange  is  the  feel- 
ing of  unlooked-for  bliss.  Then  is  the  moment  of 
heroic  vocations,  leaving  all  that  was  to  gain  all  that 
is,  selling  this  world  and  buying  the  next.  Blessed 
be  the  book  of  the  Gospels  that  teaches  this  science 
of  political  economy,  and  the  books  of  the  saints  that 
expound  it ;  blessed  the  professor  in  the  university, 
the  priest  in  the  pulpit,  the  true  friend  among  the 
laity,  the  Christian  journalist,  the  devout  parent ; 
blessed  are  all  who  know  and  can  teach  this  deep 
secret  of  sound  money,  these  heavenly  laws  of  trade 
which  rule  in  the  barter  of  passing  pleasure  for  eter- 
nal joy. 

THE   PEARI,  OP   GREAT   PRICE. 

Not  content  with  one  parable  on  this  topic,  the 
Master  enforces  His  doctrine  of  heavenly  finance  by  a 
second  one:  "Again,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like 
to  a  merchant  seeking  good  pearls  ;  who  when  he  had 
found  one  pearl  of  great  price,  went  his  way  and  sold 
all  that  he  had  and  bought  it."  If  a  man  has  intel- 
lect, learning,  genius,  station,  health,  riches,  accord- 
ing to  Jesus  Christ  he  has  what  will  set  him  up  in 
business,  for  here  is  his  means  of  a  bold  venture. 
L,et  him,  however,  understand  that  he  is  dealing  with 
God  and  bargaining  for  eternal  joy : 
no  huckstering  here.  All  for  all  is 
the  maxim 


THE    PARABLE   OF   THE   NET. 

That  God  neither  disdains  to  wait 
for  sinners,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  will 
allow  them  a  final  impunity,  Jesus 
shows  us  in  His  parable  of  the  net. 
Patiently,  yes  painfulry,  does  Holy 
Church  draw  her  net  through  the  sea 


SEEKING  GOOPLY  PEARLS. 


ALL    KINDS   OF    FISHES. 

Again,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like 
a.  net  cast  into  the  sea,  and  gathering  to- 
gether of  all  kinds  of  fishes,  which  when  it 
was  filled  they  drew  out,  and  sitting  by  the 
shore,  they  chose  out  the  good  into  vessels, 
but  the  bad  they  cast  forth.  So  shall  it  be 
at  the  end  of  the  world. 


312  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

of  humanity,  and  though  guarding  it  as  best  she 
may,  she  cannot  help  enclosing  every  kind  of  souls, 
even  the  unworthy  who  deceitful- 
ly enter  in.  So  back  and  forth 
through  the  world  goes  the  net  of 
Jesus  Christ,  woven  of  the  sacra- 
ments, the  dogmatic  teaching,  the 
holy  brotherhood  of  the  Church, 
and  only  when  drawn  upon  the 
shores  of  eternity  shall  the  good  and  bad  be  sepa- 
rated ;  but  the  separation  shall  then  be  irrevocable. 

When  He  had  finished  these  parables,  Jesus  with 
loving  familiarity  addressed  His  audience  :  ' '  Have  ye 
understood  all  these  things?  They  say  to  Him,  Yea. 
He  said  unto  them,  Therefore  every  scribe  instructed 
in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  is  like  a  man  that  is  a 
householder,  who  bringeth  forth  out  of  his  treasure 
new  things  and  old."  One  test  of  a  Christian  teacher's 
power  is  in  revealing  the  ever-blooming  freshness  of 
His  doctrine,  which  means  the  disclosing  of  some  new 
beauty  and  new  usefulness  in  the  ancient  doctrine, 
some  adjustment  to  a  new  order  of  politics,  or  of  social 
conditions,  or  of  mental  activity. 

New  things  and  old  is  our  Saviour's  way,  not 
old  things  and  new.  As  God  incessantly  makes  new 
the  earth  and  the  earthly  life  of  man,  so  He  ever 
newly  develops  His  spiritual  life.  New  dwellings  are 
always  being  built  on  the  old  streets  of  the  City  of 
God.  God  changes  men  in  their  generations  that  He 
may  display  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  His  Church. 
Adherence  to  forms  and  methods  of  religious  influence 
which  have  succeeded  in  a  bygone  social  state  is 
often  unwise,  all  the  more  so  because  its  exponents 
are  tempted  to  insist  upon  these  worn-out  clothes  of 


TEACHING  BY  PARABLES.  313 

religion  as  the  very  substance  of  the  'true  faith.  It 
is  not  a  new  religion  that  men  want;  but  a  new  cloth- 
ing of  the  only  true  religion,  ever  ancient  and  ever 
new.  On  the  other  hand,  the  innovator  in  doctrine  or 
the  minimizer  of  the  fulness  of  truth,  the  censor  of 
simple-minded  orthodoxy,  the  teacher  who  would  win 
an  audience  at  the  expense  of  some  immemorial  belief 
or  practice  of  the  people  of  God — who  is  tempted  to 
win  men  at  any  expense — such  a  one  has  lost  his  touch 
with  Jesus  Christ.  The  over-conservative  teacher  con- 
fuses the  clothes  of  religion  with  its  life,  and  the  over- 
opportune  teacher  sacrifices  its  life  to  present  avail- 
ability. The  true  way  is  that  of  our  Saviour:  the 
wise  teacher,  says  He,  "  bringeth  forth  out  of  his 
treasure  new  things  and  old." 

In  all  this  series  of  parables  the  Evangelists  show 
us  how  the  Master  taught  the  people,  and  what  is 
His  school  of  rhetoric  for  Christian  teachers  for  all 
time.  "  All  these  things  Jesus  spoke  in  parables  to 
the  multitudes,  and  without  parables  He  did  not  speak 
to  them.  That  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken 
by  the  Prophet,  saying :  /  will  open  My  mouth  in 
parables ;  I  will  utter  things  hidden  from  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world.  But  apart,  He  explained  all  things 
to  His  disciples.  And  it  came  to  pass  when  Jesus  had 
finished  these  parables  He  passed  from  thence." 


3I4  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 

THE  STIWJNG  OP  THE  TEMPEST.— THE  LEGION  OP 
DEVILS  AND  THE  HERD  OP  SWINE. 

Matt.    viii.    18-34. ,    and  ix.  i ;  Mark  iv.  35-4.1,  and 
v.  1-2 1  ;  Luke  viii.    22-4.0 . 

L,ADL,Y  did  the  L,ord  rest  from  His  busy  hours 
of  preaching  and  disputing.  He  entered  one 
of  the  disciples'  boats  and  was  wafted  gently 
over  the  waters  of  the  lake,  the  western  sky 
all  golden  with  the  setting  sun.  As  the 
shades  deepened  and  the  stars  began  to  glit- 
ter in  the  sky,  the  fatigue  of  the  long  and 


eventful  day,  the  evening  breeze  and  the  cadence 
of  the  oars  won  Him  into  a  deep  and  refreshing  sleep. 
His  disciples  lovingly  watched  His  slumbers,  His  head 
resting,  perhaps,  on  one  of  their  rough  coats  folded 
to  make  Him  a  pillow.  The  rippling  of  the  waves 
and  the  murmured  conversation  of  these  well-loved 
children  were  the  last  sounds  He  heard :  they  were 
doubtless  talking  of  His  power  and  of  His  love,  and 
of  their  happy  privilege  to  be  His  disciples. 

But  after  a  time  the  sky  to  the  east  and  north 
became  overcast  and  an  ominous  stillness  fell ;  then  a 
few  puffs  of  wind  came  from  the  highlands  towards 
Ivibanus  and  Hermon,  the  messengers  of  the  advanc- 
ing storm.  I^ake  Genesareth,  especially  the  upper 
part  of  it,  is  subject  to  sudden  storms,  and  the  dis- 
ciples, whose  avocation  taught  them  to  know  the 
weather,  were  soon  aware  of  their  danger.  Down 
swept  the  fierce  gale,  forcing  them  out  of  their  course, 
lifting  the  waves  high  into  the  air,  and  threatening 
their  destruction;  and  still  the  Master  slept  on.  But 
when  the  waves  dashed  into  the  little  vessel  and 


THE  STILLING  OF  THE  TEMPEST. 


315 


"PEACE,   BE  STILL  I" 

And  Jesus  seeing  great  multitudes  about 
him,  when  evening  was  come,  gave  orders 
to  pass  over  the  water.  .  .  .  And  send- 
ing away  the  multitude,  they  take  him, 
even  as  he  was,  in  the  ship,  and  there  were 
other  ships  with  him.  And  there  arose  a 
great  storm  of  wind,  and  the  waves  beat 
into  the  ship,  so  that  the  ship  was  filled. 
And  he  was  in  the  hinder  part  of  the  ship 
sleeping  upon  a  pillow,  and  they  awake 
him  and  say  to  him:  Master,  doth  it  not 
concern  thee  that  we  perish  ?  And  rising 
up  he  rebuked  the  wind,  and  said  to  the 
sea  :  Peace,  be  still.  And  the  wind  ceased, 
and  there  was  made  a  great  calm.  And  he 
said  to  them  :  Why  are  you  fearful  ?  Have 
you  not  faith  yet  ?  And  they  feared  ex- 
ceedingly, and  they  said  one  to  another  : 
Who  is  this  (thinkest  thou),  that  both 
wind  and  sea  obey  him  ? 


threatened  to  sink  it,  they  "  awake 
Him  and  say  to  Him  :  Doth  it  not 
concern  Thee  that  we  perish  ?  ' ' 
Jesus  arose  without  any  sign  of  dis- 
turbance, and  looking  calmly  into 
the  storm,  "  rebuked  the  wind,  and 
said,  Peace,  be  still !  And  the  wind 
ceased  and  there  was  made  a  great 
calm."  He  tamed  the  wild  elements 
as  men  of  a  peculiar  gift  can  tame  a 
wild  horse,  by  a  look,  a  motion  of 
the  hand.  But  Jesus  did  not  fail 
to  notice  that  His  followers  had 
given  way  to  something  like  dis- 
trust. This  pained  Him  ;  and  so  He  said  to  them, 
* '  Why  are  you  fearful  ?  Have  you  not  faith  yet  ?  ' ' 
In  like  danger,  Caesar's  proud  trust  in  his  destiny 
had  dictated  the  famous  admonition  to  his  boat- 
man, ''Fear  not,  thou  bearest  Caesar  and  his  for- 
tunes;"— fortunes  afterwards  all  wrecked  in  one 
stormy  moment  in  the  Roman  capitol,  with  their 
ignoble  fruits  of  tyranny,  bloodshed,  and  slavery, 
barque  of  Peter  yet  bears  Christ  and  His  for- 
tunes in  safety,  and  will  do  so  till  the  shores 
of  eternity  are  reached.  Storms  assail  it, 
storms  of  dark  vices,  heathen  persecutions, 
barbarous  invasions,  kingly  oppression,  wild 
popular  outbreaks  overwhelm  the  bark 
of  Peter  and  threaten  the  Church's  de- 
struction, casting  timid  souls  into  despair, 
for  Jesus  seems  asleep.  But  those  whose 
faith  is  true  never  despair ;  they  never 
cease  to  pray  to  Him  with  loving  trustful- 
ness. God  arises  in  His  might  and  the 
storm  is  stilled.  Furthermore,  the  relig- 


The 


"  And  the  waves  beat  into 
the  ship." 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


ious  atmosphere  is  purified  by  the  convulsion  of  the 
elements.  Dreadful  calamities  are  turned  into  real 
favors.  Deep-rooted  abuses  are  torn  out  and  de- 
stroyed, and  the  peace  of  Heaven  reigns  amid  a  peo- 
ple chastened  and  renovated  in  spirit. 

Jesus  and  His  disciples  landed  at  Gergesa,  a  point 
of  land  jutting  into  the  sea  on  the 
eastern  shore  of  the  lake.  The 
ruins  of  a  town  and  of  some  ancient 
monuments  are  yet  to  be  seen  there, 
and  also  the  steep  bluff  made  famous 
by  the  miracle  of  the  herd  of  swine. 
As  the  land  was  reached  a  pitiable 
sight  met  the  eye — a  naked  man 
wandering  about,  afflicted  with  the 
worst  form  of  diabolical  possession ; 
"  no  man  could  bind  him,  not  even 
with  chains."  He  was  howling 
miserably,  and  cutting  himself  with 
stones.  His  usual  abode  was  among 
some  tombs  in  the  caves  by  the 
water-side.  What  caused  the  poor 
wretch  to  run  from  afar  off  and 
throw  himself  at  Jesus'  feet?  The 
demoniac  may  have  retained,  or  per- 
haps been  specially  granted,  a  mo- 
mentary use  of  personal  will,  a  glim- 
mer of  hope.  As  he  fell  prostrate 
at  His  feet,  Jesus  commanded  :  "Go 
out  of  the  man,  thou  unclean  spirit." 
But  the  evil  power  within  him  forced  him  to  cry 
out  with  a  loud  voice :  ' '  What  have  I  to  do  with 
Thee,  Jesus,  Thou  Son  of  the  Most  High  God?  I 
adjure  Thee  by  God  that  Thou  torment  me  not." 
The  demon  felt  in  presence  of  his  Master,  but  did  he 


"MY  NAME  IS  LEGION." 

And  they  came  over  the  strait  of  the  sea 
into  the  country  of  the  Gerasenes,  which  is 
over  against  Galilee.  And  as  he  went  out 
of  the  ship,  immediately  there  met  him  out 
of  the  monuments  a  man  [St.  Matthew 
says  two  men]  with  an  unclean  spirit, 
who  had  his  dwelling  in  the  tombs,  and 
he  wore  no  clothes,  and  no  man  now  could 
bind  him  not  even  with  chains.  For  hav- 
ing been  bound  with  fetters  and  chains, 
he  had  burst  the  chains  and  broken  the 
fetters  in  pieces,  and  no  one  could  tame 
him.  And  he  was  always  day  and  night  in 
the  monuments  and  in  the  mountains,  cry- 
ing and  cutting  himself  with  stones.  And 
seeing  Jesus  afar  off,  he  ran  and  adored 
him.  And  crying  out  with  a  loud  voice  he 
said  :  What  have  I  to  do  with  thee,  Jesus, 
the  Son  of  the  Most  High  God  ?  I  adjure 
thee  by  God,  that  thou  torment  me  not. 
For  he  said  unto  him  :  Go  out  of  the  man, 
thou  unclean  spirit.  And  he  asked  him  : 
What  is  thy  name  ?  And  he  saith  to 
him  :  My  name  is  Legion,  for  we  are  many. 
And  he  besought  him  much,  that  he  would 
not  drive  him  away  out  of  the  country. 
And  there  was  there  near  the  mountain  a 
great  herd  of  swine,  feeding.  And  the 
spirits  besought  him,  saying:  If  thou  cast 
us  out  hence,  send  us  into  the  swine,  that 
we  may  enter  into  them.  And  Jesus  im- 
mediately gave  them  leave.  -And  he  said 
to  them :  Go.  And  the  unclean  spirits 
going  out,  entered  into  the  swine,  and  the 
herd  with  great  violence  was  carried  head- 
long into  the  sea,  being  about  two  thous- 
and, and  were  stifled  in  the  sea. 


THE  DEVILS  AND  THE  HERD  OF  SWINE.  317 

know  Him  precisely  as  God  ?  It  is  not  probable. 
Hence  the  policy  of  the  evil  one  to  tarry  and  to  pro- 
crastinate. That  the  disciples  might  learn  a  lesson, 
Jesus  asked  the  demon:  "What  is  thy  name?  And 
hesaith  to  Him  :  My  name  is  Legion,  for  we  are  many." 
Hoping  to  bring  upon  the  Master  the  hatred  of  the 
people,  the  spirits  besought  Him,  if  He  cast  them  out, 
to  send  them  into  a  herd  of  swine,  feeding  near  by. 
And  Jesus  gave  the  devils  their  wish.  He  would 
draw  good  out  of  evil — expel  the  demon  from  his 
victim  and  punish  the  Jews  who  owned  the  swine 
and  ate  their  flesh  against  the  law  of  Moses.  He 
would  also  give  to  Satan  the  shame  of  the  company 
of  those  brutes  whose  disgusting  foulness  makes  them 
the  symbol  of  unbridled  appetite  among  men.  In  an 
instant  the  two  thousand  swine  were  struck  with  un- 
controllable panic,  rushed  in  a  frantic  mass  up  the 
mountain,  as  suddenly  wheeled  about  and  with  roars 
of  pain  rushed  down  again,  and  the  whole  herd  "with 
great  violence  were  carried  headlong  into  the  sea ' '  and 
were  drowned.  It  is  an  emblem  of  the  career  of  the 
sensualist,  the  victim  of  his  own  wild  passions,  hateful  in 
animal  deformity  and  finally  driven  to  despair  and  death. 
The  swineherds  running  across  the  fields  carried 
the  news  of  their  terrible  loss  to  the  adjacent  town 
and  country,  and  thus  our  Saviour's  name  and  power 
were  given  publicity.  <(  And  they  that  fed  them  fled, 
and  told  it  in  the  city  and  in  the  fields.  And  they 
went  out  to  see  what  was  done.  And  they  came  to 
Jesus,  and  found  the  man  out  of  whom  the  devils 
were  departed  sitting  at  His  feet,  clothed  and  in  his 
right  mind;  and  they  were  afraid.  And  they  that 
had  seen  it,  told  them  in  what  manner  he  had  been 
dealt  with  who  had  the  devil,  how  he  had  been 
healed  from  the  legion,  and  concerning  the  swine." 


318  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

But  the  people  were  semi-pagan.  "  And  they  be- 
gan to  pray  Him  that  He  would  depart  from  their 
coasts."  The  Saviour's  miracle  was  not  lost  upon 
them,  but  it  was  too  costly  a  lesson  to  be  learned 
upon  a  sudden.  They  were  amazed  to  see  the 
demoniac  clothed  no  less  in  decent  garments  than  in 
fully  restored  sanity,  calm,  grateful,  and  anxious  to 
follow  and  serve  the  Master.  But  of  Jesus  they  were 
in  great  fear,  and  humbly  begged  Him  to  leave  them 
— a  feeble  and  futile  testimony  to  His  greatness. 
When,  however,  the  restored  man  asked  leave  to  fol- 
low Jesus,  the  Master  decided  that  he  had  better  re- 
main as  a  witness  and  a  teacher :  "  Go  into  thy  house, 
to  thy  friends,  and  tell  them  how  great  things  the 
Ivord  hath  done  for  thee,  and  hath  had  mercy  on  thee. 
And  he  went  his  way,  and  began  to  publish  in  De- 
capolis  how  great  things  Jesus  had  done  for  him,  and 
all  men  wondered."  He  remained  a  living  proof  of 
the  Messias  and  a  living  voice ;  for  Jesus  was  minded 
to  return  again  to  the  Gerasenes  and  deepen  the  lesson 
of  this  flitting  appearance  upon  their  coast ;  His  grate^ 
ful  beneficiary  was  meantime  His  ardent  advocate. 

All  this  time  a  vast  number  of  people  were  await- 
ing our  Saviour's  return  to  the  other  side  of  the  lake  : 
1 '  And  when  Jesus  had  passed  again  in  the  ship  over 
the  strait,  a  great  multitude  assembled  together  unto 
Him,  for  they  were  all  waiting  for  Him." 


IMPRISONMENT  OF  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST. 


3*9 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

THE      IMPRISONMENT     OF     JOHN      THE     BAPTIST.  -  HIS 
MARTYRDOM. 


Matt.  xiv.  i- 


;  Mark  vi.  14-29,  and  i.  14 
Luke  ix.  7-9. 


;  GIVE      ME 


WE  have  seen  that  the  ambitious  leaders  of  the 
Jews  had  at  first  hoped  much  from  John  the  Baptist, 
but  were  soon  disappointed  in  him, 
for  he  was  no  tool  for  intriguing 
politicians.  And  after  he  had  pro- 
claimed the  Nazarene  Carpenter  as 
the  Messias  they  gave  him  up  —  they 
suspected  his  orthodoxy.  From 
suspicion  to  hatred  the  step  is  a 
short  one,  and  an  occasion  soon  of- 
fered which  showed  they  had  taken  it. 

Herod  Antipas,  Tetrarch  of  Perea 
and  Galilee,  had  married  a  daughter 
of  Aretas,  king  of  Arabia  ;  but  after 
a  time  he  put  her  away  and  took 
Herodias,  his  brother  Philip's  wife. 
The  scandal  was  enormous.  The 
whole  people  were  shocked,  Aretas 
declared  war,  and  John  the  Baptist, 
who  usually  preached  'beyond  the 
Jordan  and  therefore  in  Herod's 
dominions,  boldly  entered  the  palace 
of  the  incestuous  ruler  and  amid  his 
unclean  revelries  thundered  forth  : 
"It  is  not  lawful  for  thee  to  take 
thy  brother's  wife."  St.  Mark  tells  us  what  had  hap- 
pened after  this  :  '  '  Herod  himself  had  sent  and  appre- 
hended John  and  bound  him  in  prison  [in  the  fortress 


JOHN     THE 


THE      HEAD      OF 
BAPTIST." 

Now  Herodias  laid  snares  for  him  and 
was  desirous  to  put  him  to  death,  and 
could  not ;  for  Herod  feared  John,  know- 
ing him  to  be  a  just  and  holy  man  ;  and 
kept  him,  and  when  he  heard  him,  did  many 
things ;  and  he  heard  him  willingly.  And 
when  a  convenient  day  was  come,  Herod 
made  a  supper  for  his  birthday,  for  the 
princes  and  tribunes,  and  chief  men  of 
Galilee.  And  when  the  daughter  of  the 
same  Herodias  had  come  in  and  had 
danced,  and  pleased  Herod  and  them  that 
were  at  table  with  him,  the  king  said  to  the 
damsel :  Ask  of  me  what  thou  wilt  and  I 
will  give  it  thee.  And  he  swore  to  her  : 
Whatsoever  thou  shalt  ask,  1  will  give 
thee,  though  it  be  the  half  of  my  kingdom. 
Who  when  she  was  gone  out,  said  to  her 
mother :  What  shall  I  ask  ?  But  she  said  : 
The  head  of  John  the  Baptist.  And  when 
she  was  come  in  immediately  in  haste  to  the 
king,  she  asked  saying :  I  will  that  forth- 
with thou  give  me  in  a  dish  the  head  of 
John  the  Baptist.  And  the  king  was 
struck  sad  ;  yet  because  of  his  oath,  and 
because  of  them  that  were  with  him  at 
table,  he  would  not  displease  her.  But 
sending  an  executioner  he  commanded  that 
his  head  should  be  brought  in  a  dish.  And 
he  beheaded  him  in  prison  and  brought 
his  head  in  a  dish,  and  gave  it  to  the 
damsel,  and  the  damsel  gave  it  to  her 
mother.  Which  his  disciples  hearing  came 
and  took  his  body  and  laid  it  in  a  tomb. 


32° 


LIFE  OP  JESVS  CHRIST. 


"  The  daughter  of  Herodias 
came  in  and  danced," 


of  Macherus],    for  the  sake  of   Herodias,  the  wife  of 
Philip  his  brother,    because  l.e  had  married  her." 

But  it  was  the  guilty  woman  who  was  most  enraged 
and  who  had  brought  about  John's  arrest.  The 
saint  of  the  desert  had  suddenly  thrust  himself  be- 
tween her  and  the  fruits  of  her  lust  and  her  ambition ; 
she  set  to  work  to  have  him  murdered.  She  caused 
exaggerated  reports  of  the  general  indignation  at  their 
incest  and  at  John's  imprisonment  to  be  brought  to 
Herod,  pretending  to  fear  a  popular  uprising.  It  is 
possible  that  some  at  least  of  the  Pharisees  aided  her 
in  this,  for  if  they  had  been  willing  to  harbor  the  Bap- 
tist in  Judea,  he  could  have  escaped  the  tyrant,  who 
had  no  jurisdiction  east  of  the  Jordan.  This  is  fur- 
ther evident  from  our  Saviour's  retreat  from  Jeru- 
salem into  Galilee,  as  we  have  seen,  upon  learning  of 
John's  imprisonment,  for  this  supposes  His 
knowledge  of  Herod's  partisans  being  power- 
ful enough  even  in  Jerusalem  to  do  Him  serious 
injury. 

But  if  Herodias  thirsted  for  John's  blood, 
her  accomplice  did  not.  Low  as  he  had  fallen, 
he  yet  admired  the  fearless  preacher  of  penance, 
and  loved  to  hear  that  glorious  voice,  even 
though  he  trembled  at  its  sound.  And  he 
feared  to  go  to  extremes  against  the  people's 
favorite,  at  least  immediately.  A  leader  of  the 
people  is  always  dreaded  no  less  than  hated  by 
tyrants,  for  in  times  of  public  commotion  the 
most  stable  throne  has  been  overturned  by  the 
appeal  of  a  popular  orator.  Therefore  it  was 
not  with  the  intention  of  murdering  John,  but 
to  keep  him  away  from  the  multitude,  that 
Herod  seized  him  and  shut  him  up  in  prison. 
His  disciples  were  allowed  access  to  him, 


JOHN'S  MARTYRDOM.  321 

Herod  heard  him  willingly,  at  least  on  matters  of 
ordinary  religious  interest,  even  sometimes  advised 
with  him  as  a  sort  of  counsellor.  ' '  Knowing  him 
to  be  a  just  and  holy  man ;  and  kept  him,  and  when 
he  heard  him  did  many  things  ;  and  he  heard  him 
willingly."  In  all  this  there  was  a  faint  shadow  of 
hope  for  the  repentance  of  the  sensualist.  Unfortu- 
nately a  wicked  woman  was  between  John  and  the 
tyrant.  She  had  seduced  the  one  and  she  hated 
the  other.  She  made  a  murderer  of  the  one  and  a 
martyr  of  the  other.  She  waited  impatiently  for  the 
moment  when  the  overpowering  sensuality  of  Herod 
could  be  played  against  his  reverence  for  the  prophet : 
"And  when  a  convenient  day  was  come,  Herod  made 
a  supper  for  his  birthday.  And  when  the  daughter 
of  the  same  Herodias  had  come  and  had  danced,  and 
pleased  Herod,  the  king  swore  to  her,  Whatsoever 
thou  shalt  ask  I  will  give  thee,  though  it  be  the 
half  of  my  kingdom." 

L,ike  mother  like  daughter.  What  a  spectacle  !  The 
foul  tyrant,  gorged  with  wine,  aflame  with  lust ;  the 
companion  of  his  guilt,  equally  sensual  but  for  the  mo- 
ment dominated  by  hatred  of  the  man  of  God  who  had 
reproved  her  paramour  for  his  criminal  love  of  her ; 
the  giddy  girl,  with  her  licentious  dance  adding  fire 
to  the  lust  of  the  man  who  had  done  so  deadly  a 
crime  against  her  own  father,  and  affording  the  coveted 
opportunity  for  her  mother's  thirst  for  the  Baptist's 
blood.  Quickly  the  two  women  withdrew  and  conferred 
together.  The  younger  hastened  back  and  said  to  the 
king,  "I  will  that  forthwith  thou  give  me  in  a  dish 
the  head  of  John  the  Baptist.  And  the  king  was 
struck  sad  "  :  that  is  to  say,  drunkenly  sad,  cowardly 
sad,  adulterously  sad,  not  penitently  sad.  Super- 
stitious fidelity  to  a  bad  oath,  human  respect  for 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

the  gibes  of  his   convivial  companions,  struck 
back  his  feebly  rising  sense  of  shame.     "And 
the  king  was  struck  sad  ;   yet  because  of   his 
oath,  and  because  of  them  that  were  with  him 
at  table,  he  would  not  displease  her.     But 
sending  an  executioner  he  commanded  that 
[John's]  head  should  be  brought  in  a  dish. 
And    [the    executioner]   beheaded   him    in 
prison   and   brought   his   head   in  a 
dish,  and  gave  it  to  the  damsel,  and 
the  damsel  gave  it  to  her  mother." 
The   words  of    St.    Ambrose    are 
chosen    by    Holy    Church    to    fitly 
characterize   this    crime:     "The  re- 
ward of  the  dancer  is  the  death  of  the 
Prophet.      And     finally    (what 
even  savages  are  accustomed  to 
abhor)  amid  feasting  and  drink- 
ing  the   command   is  given  to 

«  The  executioner  beheaded  him  in  prison."          carry   Qut    the   cmel   compact_ 

from  feast  to  prison  and  back  again  from  prison  to  feast 
moves  this  manifold  crime.  Who  would  not  have 
thought  as  he  saw  the  messenger  hurrying  from  the 
king's  banquet  to  John's  prison  that  it  was  to  set  him 
free  ? — a  boon  asked  by  a  favorite  young  girl  out  of  pity 
for  the  Prophet,  and  gladly  granted  by  the  king  to  honor 
his  birthday.  But  oh  what  cruelty  was  mingled  with 
their  joys!  What  voluptuous  pleasures  were  associat- 
ed with  the  martyr's  pains  !  .  .  .  Cast  thine  eyes, 
O  cruel  king,  upon  this  sight,  worthy  dish  to  set  be- 
fore thy  unclean  appetite.  Reach  out  thy  hand — let 
no  savage  joy  be  lacking — and  dabble  thy  fingers 
in  this  sacred  blood.  And  as  the  meat  and  drink 
upon  thy  table  has  not  sated  thy  hunger  and  thirst, 
drink  this  blood  yet  flowing  warm  from  the  head  thy 


MARTYRDOM. 


323 


lust  has  just  severed  from  the  body.  L,ook  into  those 
eyes  whose  glassy  stare  even  in  death  reproves  thy 
incest,  and  which  slowly  close  upon  thee  rather  from 
horror  of  thy  vice  than  from  the  weight  of  death. 
Those  lips  whose  golden  words  of  warning  thou  didst 
not  heed  are  silent,  but  they  will  yet  torment  thy 
memory." 

While  all  this  was  happening  Jesus  was  preach- 
ing in  Galilee.  The  dreadful  tidings  reached  Him 
just  as  the  Apostles  returned  from  their  preaching  in 
the  country  places — "the  Apostles  coming  together 
unto  Jesus  related  all  things  that  they  had  done 
and  taught."  The  disciples  of  John,  having  man- 
aged to  get  possession  of  the  body  "and  laid  it  in 
a  tomb,"  came  and  told  Jesus — their  awful  news 
breaking  in  on  the  happy  reunion  of  the  Master  and 
His  Apostles.  Furthermore,  it  was  learned  that  Herod 
was  thinking  of  seizing  Jesus.  This  was  but  natural. 
John  and  Jesus  were  servant  and  master,  and  the  re- 
morse of  Herod  for  the  murder  of  the  one  would 
alternate  with  his  alarm  about  the  purposes  of  the 
other :  his  crime  was  always  being  repeated  by  a 
ghost-play  in  his  troubled  conscience,  troubled  and 
superstitious  also.  "At  that  time  Herod  the  Te- 
trarch  heard  the  name  of  Jesus  (for  His  name  was 
made  manifest),  and  he  said:  John  the  Baptist  is 
risen  again  from  the  dead,  and  therefore  mighty  H 
works  show  forth  themselves  in  him.  And  others 
said  :  It  is  Blias.  But  others  said  :  It  is  a  prophet, 
as  one  of  the  prophets.  Which  Herod  hearing  said  :  TOMB'OF  JOHN  THE 
John  I  have  beheaded,  but  who  is  this  of  whom  I  BAPTIST. 
hear  such  things?  And  he  sought  to  see  Him." 


324  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST: 

CHAPTER   XXXVII. 

JESUS     MULTIPLIES     THE     LOAVES     AND     FISHES. — HE 
WALKS  UPON   THE    WATER. 

Matt.  xiv.  Jj-j6  ;  Mark  m.  30-56;  Luke  ix.  10—17; 
John  vi.  1-2 T. 

THE  death  of  John  was  a  great  shock  to  the  sensi- 
tive nature  of  our  Saviour.  His  soul  craved  a  brief 
time  of  solitude  and  prayer,  of  mourning  for  his  be- 
loved Precursor.  "  Which  when  Jesus  had  heard 
He  retired  from  thence  by  a  boat,  into  a  desert  place 
apart."  He  said  to  His  disciples:  "Come  into  a 
desert  place  and  rest  a  little."  It  was  impossible  to 
avoid  the  throng  where  they  were  :  ' '  For  there  were 
many  coming  and  going,  and  they  had  not  so  much 
as  time  to  eat.  And  going  up  into  a  ship  Jesus  went 
over  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  which  Is  that  of  Tiberias." 

The  Apostles,  also,  would  enjoy  a  season  of  rest. 
They  had  labored  hard  as  missionaries,  they  were 
anxious  to  speak  fully  with  Jesus  about  their  experi- 
ence, and  they  too  mourned  John  very  bitterly. 
Many  if  not  all  of  them  had  been  baptized  by  him, 
and  had  been  promoted  from  his  discipleship  to  that 
of  Jesus.  "And  taking  them,  He  went  aside  into  a 
desert  place  apart,  which  belonged  to  Bethsaida." 
This  is  a  little  solitude  just  east  of  where  the  Jordan 
enters  the  lake,  a  point  formed  by  the  river,  the  lake, 
and  a  range  of  rocky  hills  which  joins  them  together. 
The  soil  was  barren  and  uncultivated,  covered'  with  a 
growth  of  wild  grasses.  Hither  the  Master  directed 
His  disciples  to  sail  their  boat. 

But  privacy  was  no  longer  an  easy  luxury  for 
Jesus.  "  A  great  multitude  followed  Him,  because 
they  saw  the  miracles  which  He  did  on  them  that 


MIRACLE  OF  THE  LOA  VES  AND  FISHES.  325 

were  diseased."  In  spite  of  every  precaution,  the 
people  "  saw  them  going  away,"  says  St.  Mark,  "  and 
many  knew  [the  point  they  were  heading  for],  and 
they  ran  flocking  thither  on  foot  from  all  the  cities, 
and  were  there  before  them."  It  would  seem  that 
He  had  delayed  the  passage  across  the  lake,  and  had 
obtained  some  rest  in  the  boat ;  otherwise  the  crowd 
could  hardly  have  had  time  to  make  the  circuit  of 
the  northern  shore  and  be  beforehand  with  Him. 
"Jesus  therefore  went  up  into  a  mountain,  and  there 
He  sat  with  His  disciples."  Many  pilgrims  journey- 
ing towards  Jerusalem  for  the  Passover  had  joined  the 
multitude  ordinarily  waiting  upon  our  Saviour,  for 
"the  Pasch,  the  festival  day  of  the  Jews,  was  at 
hand." 

But  Jesus  did  not  stay  long  resting ;  He  loved  the 
people  too  well  for  that.  No  landscape  of  ravishing 
beauty  ever  charmed  the  soul  of  an  artist,  no  group 
of  loving  wife  and  little  ones  ever  enraptured  a  father's 
heart,  no  review  of  vast  armies  ever  dilated  a  con- 
queror's soul,  as  the  sight  of  many  men  and  women 
inflamed  the  soul  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  knew,  indeed, 
that  the  motives  of  the  multitude  were  not  the  highest. 
They  wanted  miracles,  they  sought  a  political  Mes- 
sias  and  an  earthly  kingdom ;  they  were  goaded  on 
by  the  horrid  murder  of  the  Baptist.  But  He  loved 
them  well  in  spite  of  their  faults.  "He  received 
them  and  spoke  to  them  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and 
healed  them  that  had  need  of  healing."  He  explained 
His  true  office — He  was  a  king  to  preach  and  to  heal. 
The  time  passed  quickly  away  till  late  in  the  after- 
noon. 

Our  Saviour  was  mindful  of  the  bodily  needs  of 
His  auditors,  and  He  contemplated  a  double  joy  for 
them :  a  great  miracle  for  their  souls  and  a  full  meal 


326 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


for  their  bodies.  But  He  would  try  the  faith  of  His 
Apostles  first.  "  When  Jesus  therefore  had  lifted  up 
His  eyes,  and  seen  that  a  very  great  multitude  cometh 
to  Him,  He  said  to  Philip :  Whence  shall  we  buy 
bread  that  these  may  eat  ?  And  this  He  said  to  try 
him,  for  He  Himself  knew  what  He  would  do.  Philip 
answered  :  Two  hundred  pennyworth  of  bread  is  not 
sufficient  for  them,  that  every  one 
may  take  a  little."  Thus  the  mat- 
ter rested  for  some  time,  until 
' '  when  the  day  was  now  far  spent, 
His  disciples  came  to  Him,  saying : 
This  is  a  desert  place,  and  the  hour 
is  now  past ;  send  them  away,  that 
going  into  the  next  villages  and 
towns  they  may  buy  themselves 
bread.  And  He  answering,  said  to 
them  :  They  have  no  need  to  go ; 
give  you  them  to  eat.  And  they 
said  to  Him :  I^et  us  go  and  buy 
bread  for  two  hundred  pence,  and 
we  will  give  them  to  eat."  Thedis- 
ciples  seemed  to  think  all  this  a 
pleasantry  on  our  Saviour's  part, 
and  it-  was  in  that  spirit  that  they 
ironically  asked:  "  I,et  us  go  and 
buy  bread  for  two  hundred  pence  and  we  will  give 
them  to  eat."  They  doubtless  named  the  total  sum 
in  their  little  treasury.  "And  Jesus  saith  to  them, 
How  many  loaves  have  you  ?  go  and  see.  And 
when  they  knew  [how  few  there  were],  one  of  His 
disciples,  Andrew,  the  brother  of  Simon  Peter,  saith 
to  Him,  There  is  a  boy  here  that  hath  five  barley 
loaves  and  two  fishes."  Does  this  answer  show  an 
anticipation  on  Andrew's  part  of  the  coming  miracle? 


'HE       MIRACLE       OF       THE       LOAVES      AND 
FISHES. 

And  he  saith  to  them  :  How  many  loaves 
lave  you  ?  go  and  see.  And  when  they 
:new,  one  of  his  disciples,  Andrew,  the 
irother  of  Simon  Peter,  saith  to  him : 
Phere  is  a  boy  here  that  hath  five  barley 
oaves  and  two  fishes,  but  what  are  these 
mong  so  many  ?  He  said  to  them : 
iring  them  hither  to  me.  And  he  com- 
nanded  them  that  they  should  make  them 
11  sit  down  by  companies  upon  the  green 
;rass.  And  they  sat  down  in  ranks,  by 
lundreds  and  by  fifties.  And  when  he  had 
aken  the  five  loaves  and  the  two  fishes, 
ooking  up  to  heaven  he  blessed  and  broke 
he  loaves,  and  gave  to  his  disciples  to  set 
icfore  them  ;  and  the  two  fishes  he  divided 
mong  them  all.  And  they  all  did  eat  and 
/ere  filled.  And  when  they  were  filled,  he 
aid  to  his  disciples  :  Gather  up  the  frag- 
lents  that  remain,  lest  they  be  lost.  They 
athered  up  therefore,  and  filled  twelve 
askets  with  the  fragments  of  the  five 
arley  loaves  and  of  the  fishes,  which  re- 
lained  over  and  above  to  them  that  Siad 
aten.  And  the  number  of  them  that  did 
at  was  five  thousand  men,  besides  women 
nd  children. 


MIRACLE  OF  THE  LOA  VES  AND  FISHES. 


327 


He  continued  :  "  But  what  are  these  among  so  many  ? 
He  said  to  them:  Bring  them  hither  to  me." 

The  reader  knows  that  the  stupendous  miracle 
about  to  be  performed  tallied  with  the  time  when 
* '  the  Passover,  the  festival-day  of  the  Jews,  was  near 
at  hand."  The  coincidence  was  notable  to  the  mind 
of  Jesus,  for  after  His  miracle  He  was  going  to  pro- 
claim for  the  first  time  the  religious  banquet  which 
was  in  the  New  Law  to  take  the  place  of  the  Paschal 
Lamb  in  the  Old,  and  He  made  this  feast  a  solemn 
religious  occasion.  "He  commanded  them  that  they 
should  make  them  all  sit  down  by  companies  upon 
the  green  grass.  And  they  sat  down  in  ranks  by 
hundreds  and  by  fifties."  It  was  the  marshalling  of 
His  hosts  as  if  for  battle.  But  little  did  those  ardent- 
ly patriotic  Israelites  appreciate  that  the  only  military 
array  proper  to  the  new  kingdom  would  be  the 
ordering  of  fifties  and  hundreds  and  thousands  and 
millions  of  peaceful  souls  about  the  banquet-table  of 
the  Prince  of  Peace. 

Jesus  then  worked  His  miracle.  In  His  soul's  labo- 
ratory was  stored  the  spell  which  by  slow  processes 
turns  earth  and  air  and  water  into  human  food  :  He 
now  doubles  its  power  upon  itself  and  concentrates 
its  work  of  seasons  into  the  space  of  a  few  words 
of  heavenly  blessing:  'And  when -He  had  taken  the 
five  loaves  and  the  two  fishes,  looking  up  to  Heaven 
He  blessed  and  broke  the  loaves,  and  gave  to  His 
disciples  to  set  before  them ;  and  the  two  fishes  He 
divided  among  them  all.  And  they  all  did  eat  and 
were  filled."  The  remains  of  such  a  feast  were  relics, 
and  were  fit  tokens  to  teach  the  lesson  of  humble 
Christian  thrift:  the  worth  of  the  gifts  of  God  is 
not  in  themselves  but  in  the  loving  kindness  of  the 
Oiver.  "  And  immediately  He  obliged  His  disciples 


blessed    an 
the  loaves 


328  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

to  go  up  into  the  ship  that  they  might  go  before  Him 
over  the  water  to  Bethsaida,  whilst  He  dismissed 
the  people.  Now  those  men,  when  they  had  seen  what 
a  miracle  Jesus  had  done,  said  :  This  is  of  a  truth  the 
prophet  that  is  to  come  into  the  world.  Jesus  there- 
fore, when  He  knew  that  they  would  come  to  take 
Him  by  force  and  make  Him  king,  fled  again  into  the 
mountain  Himself  alone."  He  dismissed  the  people. 
But  they  were  too  deeply  preoccupied  with  racial  as- 
pirations to  be  cheated  so  easily  of  their  design  to 
place  Him  at  the  head  of  a  national  uprising,  even 
though  He  strove  to  elude  them  by  sending  His 
Apostles  away  in  their  boat  without  Him,  hidden  by 
the  gathering  darkness.  Their  leaders  counselled  to- 
gether, they  determined  ' '  to  take  Him  by  force  and 
to  make  Him  king."  They  would  march  in  triumph 
to  Jerusalem,  raising  the  whole  country  by  the  way. 
He  avoided  them.  When  they  sought  Him  He  was 
gone — He  had  "fled  again  into  the  mountain  Him- 
self alone."  They  were  right  in  thinking  that  one 
who  could  feed  an  army  by  asking  a  blessing  on  a 
basket  of  bread,  could  also  arm  it  and  lead  it  to 
And  gave  to  His  victory.  But  they  made  a  mistake  which  has  not 
disciples  to  set  be-  seldom  been  imitated  by  Christians  in  succeeding 
fore  them."  ages.  For  although  the  power  of  Christ's  kingdom 

conduces  to  national  liberty  and  glory,  its  distinct  and 
peculiar  office  is  not  national  glory  but  the  saving 
of  men's  souls  one  by  one,  and  always  by  means  the 
very  opposite  of  warlike  ones,  namely,  peaceful  per- 
suasion, patient  suffering  and  love. 

It  is  possible  that  our  Saviour  was  moved  to  send 
away  His  Apostles  lest  they  should  become  tainted  by 
the  secularism  of  the  multitude.  What  a  temptation  ! 
— the  thought  of  being  made  generals  over  the  cohorts 
that  could  instantly  have  been  formed  from  the  five 


JESUS  WALKS  UPON  THE  WATER. 


329 


thousand  hardy  Galileans.     It  was  nightfall  when  they 
went   aboard  their  vessel,    and  as   the  wind  was  con- 
trary, they  made  what  headway  they  could  by  rowing, 
directing   their  course  towards  the   "land  of  Genesa- 
reth,"   the  western  shore  just  south   of   Capharnaum. 
Presently  the  wind  changed  and  quickly  increased  to 
a  gale  ;  soon  a  violent  tempest  was  upon  them.     Their 
situation  was  extremely  perilous,  for  it  was  impossible 
to  land  in  safety  upon  the  western  shore  with  the  storm 
beating  upon  it,  and  it  was  equally  impossible  to  keep 
their  little  ship  away  from  it.     Meantime  their  Master 
was   either  among   the    hills    engaged  in   prayer,    or, 
as  seems  possible,  had  been  making  His  way  on  foot 
around  the  head  of  the  lake.     But  on  the  coming  of 
the  storm  His  love  for  His  Apostles  drew  His  thoughts 
to   their   tossing    bark — and    in   a    moment    He    was 
near  them.     "They  saw  Jesus  walking  upon  the  sea 
and   drawing  nigh  to  the  ship,  and  they  were  afraid. " 
His   dim   outline  floated   before  them  like  a  phantom 
above  the  raging  waters,   every  flash  of  lightning  re- 
vealing  Him   far  or   near,    seeming    to   beckon    them 
onward:   "They   all    saw   Him    and   were    troubled." 
Jesus  had  passed  from  the  solid  earth  and  was  walk- 
ing like  God  "  upon  the  waves  of  the  sea  "  (Job  ix.  8). 
Presently   His  voice,  cleaving  the  roar  of  the 
wind  and  the  dashing  of  the  water,  came  weird- 
ly upon  them  :    "  Have  a  good  heart  ;    it  is  I, 
fear   ye   not."     "  Lord,"  shouted  Peter,  "if  it 
be  Thou,  bid  me  come  to  Thee  upon  the  waters. 
And  Jesus    said :    Come.      And     Peter   going 
down  out   of  the  boat  walked  upon  the  water 
to  come  to  Jesus."     But  alas  !   Peter's  trustful- 
ness was   not  perfect  ;    there  was  a  mixture  of 
bravado  in  his  motives — a  fault  that  shall  yet 
cause  him  a  deadlier  shipwreck  than  what  now       "Othou  of  little  faith." 


330 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


befell  him.  "  But  seeing  the  wind  strong  he  was  afraid, 
and  when  he  began  to  sink  he  cried  out,  saying  :  L/ord, 
save  me  !  And  immediately  Jesus  stretching  forth  His 
hand,  took  hold  of  him,  and  said  to  him :  O  thou 
of  little  faith,  why  didst  thou  doubt?"  When  faith 
wavers  miracles  cease.  When  all  is  lost  Jesus  is  not 
lost.  When  faith  or  hope  or  love  has  been  wanting, 
our  own  weakness  should  at  least  teach  us  the  lesson  of 
the  strength  of  Jesus'  arm.  When  the  Master  reached 
the  boat  with  Peter,  and  when  the  storm  suddenly  ceas- 
ed, they  all  fell  down  and  adored 
Him,  "  saying,  Indeed  Thou  art  the 
Son  of  God.  And  presently  they 
were  at  the  land  to  which  they  were 
going.  And  when  they  had  passed 
over,  they  came  into  the  land  of 
Genesareth  and  set  to  the  shore." 
They  reached  land  in  the  early  hours 
of  the  morning.  What  followed  is 
thus  narrated  by  St.  Mark:  "And 
when  they  were  gone  out  of  the  ship, 
immediately  they  [that  is,  the  people 
of  the  neighborhood]  knew  Him. 
And  running  through  that  whole 
country  they  began  to  carry  about 
in  beds  those  that  were  sick  where 
they  heard  Jesus  was.  And  whither- 
soever He  entered,  into  towns  or 
into  villages  or  cities,  they  laid  the 
sick  in  the  streets  and  besought 
Him  that  they  might  touch  but 
the  hem  of  His  garment,  and  as 
many  as  touched  Him  were  made 
whole." 


JESUS  WALKING  UPON    THE  SEA. 

And  when  evening  was  come  his  dis- 
ciples went  down  to  the  sea.  And  when 
they  had  gone  up  into  a  ship,  they  went 
over  the  sea  to  Capharnaum,  and  it  was 
now  dark,  and  Jesus  was  not  come  unto 
them.  And  the  sea  rose  by  reason  of  a 
great  wind  that  blew.  When  they  had 
rowed  therefore  about  6ve-and-twenty  ot 
thirty  furlongs,  they  saw  Jesus  walking 
upon  the  sea  and  drawing  nigh  to  the 
"^hip,  and  they  were  afraid  ;  and  he  would 
nave  passed  by  them.  But  they  seeing 
him  walking  upon  the  sea,  thought  it  was 
an  apparition,  and  they  cried  out  ;  for  they 
all  saw  him,  and  were  troubled.  And  im- 
mediately he  spoke  with  them  and  said  to 
them  :  Have  a  good  heart :  it  is  I,  fear  ye 
not.  And  Peter  making  answer  said  :  Lord, 
if  it  be  thou,  bid  me  come  to  thee  upon  the 
waters.  And  he  said  :  Come.  And  Peter, 
going  down  out  of  the  boat,  walked  upon 
the  water  to  come  to  Jesus.  But  seeing 
the  wind  strong,  he  was  afraid,  and  when 
he  began  to  sink  he  cried  out,  saying  : 
Lord,  save  me.  And  immediately  Jesus, 
stretching  forth  his  hand,  took  hold  of  him 
and  said  to  him  :  O  thou  of  little  faith, 
why  didst  thou  doubt?  And  when  they 
were  come  up  into  the  boat  the  wind 
ceased  ;  and  they  were  far  more  astonished 
within  themselves  For  they  understood 
not  concerning  the  loaves,  for  their  heart 
was  blinded.  And  they  that  were  in  the 
boat  came  and  adored  him,  saying  :  In- 
deed thou  art  the  Son  of  God.  And  pres- 
ently the  ship  was  at  the  land  to  which 
they  were  going. 


THE  BREAD  OF  LIFE.  331 

CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

THE     BREAD    OF     LIFE. 

John  m.  22-60. 

"THE  next  day  the  multitude,  that  stood  on  the 
other  side  of  the  sea,  saw  that  there  was  no  other 
ship  there  but  one,  and  that  Jesus  had  not  entered 
into  the  ship  with  His  disciples,  but  that  His  dis- 
ciples were  gone  away  alone  ;  but  other  ships  came 
in  from  Tiberias,  nigh  unto  the  place  where  they  had 
eaten  the  bread,  the  L,ord  giving  thanks.  When 
therefore  the  multitude  saw  that  Jesus  was  not  there 
nor  His  disciples,  they  took  shipping  and  came  to 
Capharnaum  seeking  for  Jesus."  Whether  by  boats 
from  across  the  lake,  or  by  messengers  or  travellers 
along  the  shore,  the  half-political  and  half-religious 
assemblage  left  by  Jesus  at  the  north-east  corner  of 
the  lake  soon  learned  that  He  was  at  or  near  Caphar- 
naum. They  heard  of  His  preaching  in  that  neigh- 
borhood and  of  many  miracles  of  healing.  De- 
termined from  various  motives  to  see  Him  again, 
and  annoyed  at  His  avoiding  them,  they — at  least 
the  leaders — came  over  to  Him  in  boats.  "  They  said 
to  Him,  Rabbi,  when  earnest  Thou  hither?  Jesus 
answered  them  and  said,  Amen,  Amen,  I  say  to  you. 
you  seek  Me,  not  because  you  have  seen  miracles,  but 
because  you  did  eat  of  the  loaves  and  were  filled. 
Labor  not  for  the  meat  that  perisheth,  but  for  that 
which  endureth  unto  life  everlasting,  which  the  Son 
of  Man  will  give  you.  For  Him  hath  God  the  Father 
sealed."  They  had  mistaken  Jesus  and  His  mission. 
They  thought  Him  a  wonder-worker  who  would  feed 
His  followers  for  purposes  of  worldly  ambition,  while 
He  was  only  a  teacher  who  wished  to  instruct  them 


332  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

in  the  way  of  eternal  happiness.  The  horrible  busi- 
ness of  going  to  war  and  slaying  men  in  order  to 
found  a  political  empire  was  not  the  mission  of  Jesus; 
He  had  been  sent  to  establish  a  brotherhood  as  peace- 
ful as  it  was  glorious,  and  which  was  to  be  the 
spiritual  city  of  the  children  of  God. 

Their  perplexity  broke  out  in  questions,  which  were 
all  good  opportunities  for  His  teaching  :  "  What  shall 
we  do  that  we  may  work  the  works  of  God  ?  Jesus 
answered  and  said  to  them,  This  is  the  work  of  God, 
that  you  believe  in  Him  whom  He  hath  sent."  Not 
warlike  ardor,  but  zealous  love  of  truth  was  God's 
will  with  men  ;  not  that  men  should  conquer  each 
other,  but  that  they  should  quickly  believe  in  God's 
messenger.  Faith  is  the  demand  of  God — faith  in 
His  Son,  the  most  necessary  of  all  virtues,  the  high- 
est act  of  enlightened  reason.  It  was  this  intelligent 
but  humble  submission  to  truth  and  its  divine  ex- 
ponent that  God  wanted  from  the  Jews — nor  has  He 
ever  asked  anything  else  from  any  one  as  the  root  and 
foundation  of  all  virtue  and  wisdom.  But  they  were 
continually  looking  to  miracles,  especially  as  a  means 
of  re-establishing  the  supremacy  of  Israel. 

It  is  little  wonder  that  they  misunderstood  Him. 
They  were  ever  thinking  of  and  talking  about  Israel's 
kingdom  as  a  living  thing  in  God's  designs,  to  be 
planned  about  and  fought  for  :  Jesus  knew  it  to  be 
dead.  The  exchange  of  words  which  followed  shows 
that  they  surmised  that  Jesus,  if  He  only  would,  could 
renew  the  daily  wonders  of  the  exodus  from  Egypt, 
and  lead  them  in  triumphant  wars  against  the  idola- 
trous Gentiles.  "They  said  therefore  to  Him,  What 
sign  therefore  doest  Thou  ?  that  we  may  see  and  may 
believe  Thee :  what  dost  thou  work  ?  Our  fathers 
did  eat  manna  in  the  desert,  as  it  is  written,  He  gave 


THE  BREAD  OF  LIFE.  333 

them  bread  from  Heaven  to  eat."  .  Upon  which  our 
Saviour  immediately  entered  upon  one  of  the  most 
momentous  discourses  of  His  life.  In  it  He  teaches, 
first,  that  He  is  the  bread  of  the  soul,  the  food  of 
the  human  mind,  the  fulness  of  a  great  divine  doc- 
trine :  and  thus  is  God  and  man  made  one  in  spirit. 
He  goes  on  to  teach,  secondly,  that  He  is  the  bread  of 
both  soul  and  body  ;  that  He  is  the  food  of  the  entire 
man ;  that,  by  some  mysterious  process,  now  plainly 
outlined,  He  will  make  His  spiritual  union  a  bodily 
one  as  well,  uniting  us  not  merely  by  our  convic- 
tions and  affections  to  His  soul  and  divinit)-,  but  also 
making  each  of  us  one  body  with  His  body,  filling 
our  bodies  with  His  flesh,  and,  our  veins  with  His 
blood,  in  order  that  He  may  the  better  fill  our  minds 
with  His  thoughts  and  with  His  love : — in  a  word, 
THE  EUCHARIST. 

And  first  He  is  the  bread  of  faith  :  Amen,  Amen,  I 
say  to  you,  Moses  gave  you  not  bread  from  Heaven, 
but  My  Father  giveth  you  the  true  bread  from  Heaven. 
For  the  bread  of  God  is  that  which  cometh  down 
from  Heaven  and  giveth  life  to  the  world.  They 
said  therefore  unto  Him  :  Lord  give  us  always  this 
bread.  And  Jesus  said  to  them  :  I  am  the  bread  of 
life,  he  that  cometh  to  Me  shall  not  hunger,  and  he 
that  believeth  in  Me  shall  never  thirst."  Who  but 
God  Himself  could  say,  /  am  the  bread  of  life  ?  But 
besides  this,  Jesus  is  the  spokesman  of  God,  and  yet 
has  not  been  hearkened  to:  "But  I  said  unto  you, 
that  you  also  have  seen  Me  and  you  believe  not. 
All  that  the  Father  giveth  to  Me  shall  come  to  Me, 
and  him  that  cometh  to  Me  I  will  not  cast  out. 
Because  I  came  down  from  Heaven  not  to  do  My 
own  will,  but  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me."  Upon 
which  our  Saviour  passes  into  the  Doctrine  of 


334 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


lyife,  life's  principle,  life's  restoration,  life  related  to 
death  :  and  herein  He  teaches  that  His  doctrine  gives 
the  soul  a  supernatural  life  so  abundant  as  to  over- 
flow upon  and  restore  even  the  dying  body :  * '  Now 
this  is  the  will  of  the  Father  who  sent  Me,  that  of 
all  He  hath  given  Me  I  should  lose  nothing,  but 
should  raise  it  up  again  in  the  last  day.  And  this 
is  the  will  of  My  Father  that  sent  Me,  that  every 
one  who  seeth  the  Sou,  and  believeth  in  Him,  may 
have  life  everlasting,  and  I  will  raise  him  up  in  the 
last  day." 

L,et  any  one  deny,  if  he  can,  that  Jesus  has  brought 
a   new  spiritual  life  among  men.     For  nineteen    cen- 
turies the  inspiration  of  humanity    in  its  literature,  its 
art,   its   social    conditions,    especially   in   its    morality 
and    its   religion,    has   been   Jesus   Christ.     What    is 
best   and  most    beautiful   in    this   world    comes   from 
union  with  Jesus  Christ  by  entire  belief  in  His 
teaching.     But  many  of  the   Jews  did  not  feel 
the  want  of  a  life  of  faith ;  they  thought   that 
v/    the    revelation  of   God    through  Moses    and 
the    prophets    was    enough.       Therefore, 
they  had   no  use  for  Jesus  as  a  teacher, 
however  much  they  desired    Him  as 
a  national  leader  :   ' '  The  Jews  there- 
fore murmured  at  Him  because  He 
had    said,    I    am    the    living   bread, 
which     came    down    from    Heaven. 
And  they  said  :    Is   not   this   Jesus, 
the  Son   of  Joseph,    whose    father 
and  mother  we  know  ?  How  then 
saith   He,  I  am   come  down   from 
Heaven?"   Upon  which  our  Sav- 
iour reiterates  the  statement  of  His 
"  And  him  that  cometh  to  Me  I  will  not  cast  out."  relation  to  His  Father  :   "  Murmur 


THE  BREAD  OF  LIFE. 


335 


not  among  yourselves.  No  man  can  come 
to  Me,  except  the  Father  who  hath  sent 
Me,  draw  him,  and  I  will  raise  him  up  at 
the  last  day.  It  is  written  in  the  pro- 
phets :  And  they  shall  all  be  taught  of 
God."  He  does  not  advert  to  their  objecti< 
about  His  human  parentage,  for  if  they  could 
not  understand  the  authority  of  God  in  a  won- 
der-working teacher,  how  could  they  under- 
stand the  deep  mystery  of  the  Incarnation? 
lyet  them  but  be  faithful  to  the  inner  voice  of 
reason  and  of  faith  and  the  result  is  certain  : 
"  Every  one  that  hath  heard  of  the  Father 
and  hath  learned  corneth  to  Me."  More  than 
this  invisible  drawing  no  man  dare  claim : 
"Not  that  any  man  hath  seen  the  Father,  "  I  am  the  living  bread." 
but  he  who  is  of  God,  he  hath  seen  the  Father. 
Amen,  Amen,"  finally  exclaims  the  Master  with  de- 
cisive authority,  "  I  say  unto  you  he  that  believeth  in 
Me  hath  everlasting  life.  I  am  the  bread  of  life. 
Your  fathers  did  eat  manna  in  the  desert  and  are 
dead.  This  is  the  bread  that  cometh  down  from 
Heaven,  that  if  any  man  eat  of  it  he  may  not  die." 
And  now  follows  -the  amazing  doctrine  of  the 
Eucharist.  It  is  the  communication  to  us  of  the 
actual  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  and  with  it  the 
fruits  of  His  atonement  for  our  sins.  The  life  of 
faith  by  belief  in  Jesus  Christ  as  God's  spokesman, 
His  Word,  is  one  with  the  life  of  sanctification 
through  His  atonement,  His  bloody  death  upon  the 
Cross.  Both  the  truth  of  God  in  Christ's  teaching 
and  the  pardon  of  God  through  Christ's  suffering  are 
to  be  ours  in  entire  fulness.  Therefore  our  Saviour, 
having  chosen  bread  as  the  figure  of  the  one,  chooses 
bread  again  as  the  outward  form  of  the  other.  His 


336  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

communication  of  Himself  to  us  as  our  Redeemer  (as 
will  be  seen  at  the  L,ast  Supper)  is  to  be  under  the 
form  of  bread  for  His  body  and  of  wine  for  His  blood. 
The  bread  of  faith  makes  us  partakers  of  the  mental 
life  of  Jesus  ;  the  Eucharistic  bread  makes  us  partakers 
of  His  physical  life,  given  for  us  in  His  death  on 
the  Cross.  Thus  the  whole  Christ,  physical  as  well 
as  spiritual,  is  communicated  to  each  Christian — name- 
ly, as  the  Word  of  God  in  faith,  as  the  Lamb  of 
God  in  sacrificial  food.  This  is  life  as  it  is  in 
Christ  and  as  it  is  imparted  by  Christ.  The  reader 
will  perceive  in  the  successive  .sentences  of  this  as- 
tonishing discourse  that  it  is  a  summary  of  Christ's 
way  of  imparting  His  life  to  His  believers  and  His 
lovers. 

"  I  am  the  living  bread  which  came  down  from 
Heaven.  If  any  man  eat  of  this  bread  he  shall  live 
for  ever  ;  and  the  bread  that  I  will  give  is  My  flesh 
for  the  life  of  the  world."  His  hearers  were  of  too 
gross  a  nature  to  understand  that  the  spirit  sanctifies 
the  flesh  and  can  and  does  use  it  for  highest  spiritual 
purposes ;  and  they  were  too  proud  to  wait  patient- 
ly for  explanations  of  a  mysterious  statement:  "The 
Jews  therefore  strove  among  themselves,  saying  :  How 
shall  this  man  give  us  His  flesh  to  eat  ?  ' '  Our  Sav- 
iour's purpose  of  a  literal,  a  flesh  and  blood  union  with 
men  now  fully  appears.  For  if  He  had  used  the  word 
flesh  as  a  mere  figure  of  speech  He  must  have  said 
so,  as  in  similar  circumstances  He  had  done  before 
and  will  do  afterwards.  But  he  insists  and  reinsists 
upon  the  literal  meaning,  always  expressly  connect- 
ing with  it  the  imparting  of  life  :  "  Then  Jesus  said 
to  them,  Amen,  Amen,  I  say  unto  you,  except  you 
eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  Man  and  drink  -His  blood, 
you  shall  not  have  life  in  you.  He  that  eateth  My 


THE  BREAD  OF  LIFE. 


337 


flesh  and  drinketh  My  blood  hath  everlasting  life, 
and  I  will  raise  him  up  in  the  last  day.  For  My 
flesh  is  meat  indeed  and  My  blood  is  drink  indeed. 
He  that  eateth  My  flesh  and  drinketh  My  blood 
abideth  in  Me  and  I  in  him." 

Perhaps  the  strongest  words  in  all  Scripture  are 
those  which  follow.  The  introduction  of  humanity 
into  the  Deity  by  adoption  of  sonship  can  only  be 
perfected  by  the  extension  to  each  of  us  of  the  hu- 
man nature  of  Jesus,  which  enjoys 
personal  oneness  with  the  divine 
nature  of  the  Father  :  "  As  the  living 
Father  hath  sent  Me,  and  as  I  live 
by  the  Father,  so  he  that  eateth 
Me,  the  same  also  shall  live  by 
Me."  The  divinity  came  to  humani- 
ty as  a  race  by  a  Man-God  ;  it  shall 
take  personal  possession  of  each  in- 
dividual by  a  Man-God.  But  how  ? 
What  can  be  the  meaning  of  eating 
the  Master's  flesh  and  blood — not 
figuratively  but  literally  ?  Our  Sav- 
iour's only  answer  is  a  recurrence  to 
what  He  taught  in  opening  His 
discourse.  He  that  accepts  the  Messias  as  the  bread 
of  faith  takes  His  teaching  implicitly,  confides  ab- 
solutely in  Him,  saying  credo — mystery  or  no  mys- 
tery, I  believe!  "  This  is  the  bread  that  came  down 
from  Heaven,"  He  says, 
eat  manna  and  are  dead. 
shall  live  for  ever." 

Here,  then,  is  a  most  singular  satisfaction  of  man's 
craving  for  the  infinite,  the  master  passion  of  the  race 
in  all  ages.  Man  and  God  are  to  be  made  one  by 
physical  union  (as  food  is  united  to  the  body)  be- 


I  AM  THE  LIVING  BREAD  which  came 
down  from  heaven.  If  any  man  eat  of  this 
bread  he  shall  live  for  ever  ;  and  the  bread 
that  I  will  give  is  my  flesh  for  the  life  of 
the  world.  The  Jews  therefore  strove 
among  themselves,  saying  :  How  shall  this 
man  give  us  his  flesh  to  eat  ?  Then  Jesus 
said  to  them  :  Amen,  amen,  I  say  unto  you, 
except  you  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  Man 
and  drink  his  blood  you  shall  not  have  life 
in  you.  He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and  drink- 
eth my  blood  hath  everlasting  life,  and  I 
will  raise  him  up  in  the  last  day.  For  my 
flesh  is  meat  indeed  and  my  blood  is  drink 
indeed.  He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and 
drinketh  my  blood  abideth  in  me  and  I  in 
him.  As  the  living  Father  hath  sent  me 
and  I  live  by  the  Father,  so  he  that  eateth 
me,  the  same  also  shall  live  by  me.  This 
is  the  bread  that  came  down  from  heaven. 
Not  as  your  fathers  did  eat  manna  and  are 
dead.  He  that  eateth  this  bread  shall  liv* 
for  ever. 


"Not   as  your   fathers  did 
He   that  eateth  this  bread 


338  LIFE  OP"  JESUS  CHRIST. 

tweeii  the  Christ  and  His  loving  disciple.  And  this 
•corporal  union  best  conveys  the  spiritual  life.  The 
physical  life  of  Christ  from  the  first  throb  in  Mary's 
womb  till  His  last  gasp  on  Calvary,  was  the  vehicle 
to  us  of  the  life  of  God.  By  every  look,  tone,  word, 
touch,  sigh,  tear,  blood-drop,  God's  life  went  forth 
from  our  Saviour  to  His  disciples.  As  one  gives  first  a 
cup  of  water  from  a  spring  to  the  hot  and  dusty  way- 
farer and  then  gives  the  spring  itself,  so  does  God, 
following  up  the  gift  of  the  teaching  Christ,  give  us 
the  fulness  of  the  divine  life  in  the  Kucharistic  Christ. 
As  one  man  heals  another  by  infusing  his  own  whole- 
some blood  into  his  veins,  so  is  the  redeeming  blood 
of  Christ  physically  poured  upon  us  and  into  us  by 
the  Eucharist.  As  by  the  bodily  life  and  death  of 
Christ,  and  not  by  His  spiritual  influence  alone,  the 
life  of  God  is  offered  to  us  as  a  race,  so  by  our  own 
bodily  life  absorbing  Christ's  own  bodily  life  is  that 
divine  life  perfected  in  us  one  by  one.  The  end  of 
man  is  the  infinite  God  ;  He  having  come  to  us  in 
flesh  and  blood,  now  by  flesh  and  blood  will  absorb 
us  and  hold  us  as  a  living  man  holds  his  living  blood. 


m  \    • 


7 HE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  EUCHARIST. 


339 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

MANY    DISCIPLES   GO    BACK   FROM    JESUS   ON    ACCOUNT 
OF   THE    DOCTRINE   OF   THE    EUCHARIST. 

John  vi.  61-72. 

F  they  of  Capharnaum  had   known  how  to  love 
God,  they  might  indeed  have  wondered  at  the 
gift  of  the  Real  Presence,  but  it  would  not  have 
shocked   them   into   disbelief.     lyOve   believeth 
all  things.     But  we  are  not  surprised  that  the 
synagogue,  in  which  Jesus  held  His  discourse, 
became  the  scene  of  violent  discussion,  for  this 
singular   doctrine   puzzled   even    the   disciples, 
and  some  even  revolted  against  it.     Yet  if  they  would 
but   take  Jesus  at  His  word  and  wait  for  explanations 
and  abide   all    results  in    simple   faith,    the   mystery 
would  but  add  another  divine  wonder  to  their  Master's 
religion.     Had  they  not  known  Him  render  His  body 
invisible,  superior  to  the   force   of  gravity  ?     Had  He 
not  but  the  night  before  walked  in   the  air  and  upon 
the  water — His  own  bodily  self?     Did  not  a  touch  of 
His   very  clothes  heal  diseases  ?     What  could  He  not 
do   with  that  body,     that     wonderful     body  ? 
If    He   could   walk   the   water  with   it,    if  He 
could  raise  it  and  lower  it  at  will,  if  He  could 
make  it  visible  and  invisible,  why  not  give  it 
the  form  of  bread,  why  not  sink  it  into  our 
bodies?     But  ''many  therefore  of    His  dis- 
ciples hearing  it,  said  :  This  is  a  hard  saying 
and  who  can  hear  it  ?     But  Jesus  know- 
ing in  Himself  that  His  disciples  mur- 
mured   at   this,    said   to    them :    Doth 
this  scandalize  you  ?     If  then  you  shall 
see  the   Son  of  Man  ascend  up  where  »  This  is  a*  hard  saying. 


340 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


He  was  before?"  As  if  to  say,  My  power  and  My 
love  are  masters  of  My  body,  and  can  do  with  it  all 
that  agrees  with  the  original  purpose  I  had  in  view 
in  taking  a  body  and  in  becoming  man.  For  God 
to  come  down  from  Heaven  and  take  a  human  body, 
for  God  in  His  human  body  to  reascend  to  heaven, 
for  God  in  His  human  body  to  make  Himself  the  very 
food  and  drink  of  His  beloved — all  this  is  one — that  is, 
if  you  will  understand  that  spirit  and  flesh  go  to- 
gether as  master  and  servant :  ' '  It  is  the  spirit  that 
quickeneth,  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing.  The  words 
that  I  have  spoken  to  you  are  spirit  and  life." 

Butcher's  meat  was  their  idea  of  the  flesh  of  Jesus, 
and   that    was    because   they   were   unspiritual    men. 
The  religious  spirit  was  different  :   "  But  there  are  some 
of  you  that  believe  not.     For  Jesus  knew  from  the  be- 
ginning who  they  were  that  did  not  believe,  and  who 
he  was  that  would  betray  Him.     And  He  said,  There- 
fore did  I  say  to  you,  that  no  man  can  come  to  Me,  un- 
less it  be  given  him  by  My  Father.     After   this  many 
of  His  disciples  went  back  and  walked  no  more  with 
Him."     Just  as  in  high  altitudes  the   rarity  of  the  air 
is   unbearable  by  those  whose  heart-action  is  not  per- 
fectly  sound,  so   in  the  following  of  Jesus  the  atmos- 
phere was  becoming  oppressive  to  weak  souls. 
As  the  teaching  of    the  Master  gradually  was 
developed,  earthly  views,  human    motives,  re- 
„  liance  on   human  power,  gross  appetites,  were 
more  and  more  excluded.     The  means  and  in- 
strumentalities   by    which    the    love    of  Jesus 
should  become  the  bond  of  union  between  Him 
and  His  followers  are  all  mysterious,  a  miracu- 
lous adjustment  of  material  things  to  superna- 
tural   ones.      There    is   water    and    the   Holy 
'Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  ?"  Ghost ;  there  is  a  human  word  and  divine  par- 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  EUCHARIST.  341 

don  ;  there  is  eating  and  drinking  with  the  ever- living 
Son  of  God  as  the  meat  and  drink  of  the  feast.  Kleva- 
tion  of  tnind,  in  other  words  absolute  faith,  was  neces- 
sary for  the  discipleship.  This  was  the  Baptist's 
meaning  when  he  spoke  of  the  Messias  and  His  fan 
upon  the  threshing-floor  winnowing  out  the  chaff. 

Jesus  now  applies  the  test  boldly,  so  that  when 
"  many  of  the  disciples  went  back  and  walked  no 
more  with  Him,  then  Jesus  said  to  the  twelve  : 
Will  you  also  go  away  ?  And  Simon  Peter  answered 
Him :  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou  hast  the 
words  of  eternal  life.  And  we  have  believed  and 
have  known  that  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God."  How  true  an  act  of  faith  !  Peter  does  not  say, 
We  understand  your  teaching,  we  have  better  minds 
than  these  others,  we  have  had  more  instruction  than 
these  doubters — and  hence  we  believe.  No.  Peter's 
faith  and  that  of  all  the  true  disciples  rests  upon  Jesus 
Himself,  upon  His  truthfulness,  upon  His  office  of 
Messias,  upon  His  divinity,  not  upon  their  own 
understanding  and  their  own  knowledge. 

With  this  occasion,  and  its  marvellous  discourse, 
which  is  the  prophecy  of  the  Eucharist,  the  name  of 
Judas  the  traitor  is  associated,  as  it  is  with  the  ful- 
filment of  the  prophecy  at  the  Last  Supper.  Was  the 
avarice  of  the  Traitor  the  cause  of  his  lack  of  faith,  or 
just  the  reverse?  We  know  not.  We  remember, 
however,  that  Jesus  "  knew  who  he  was  that  would 
betray  Him."  And  now  again:  "Jesus  answered 
them  :  Have  not  I  chosen  you  twelve,  and  one  of 
you  is  a  devil  ?  Now  He  meant  Judas  Iscariot,  the 
son  of  Simon,  for  this  same  was  about  to  betray  Him, 
whereas  he  was  one  of  the  twelve."  It  was  the 
pity  of  Jesus  that  dictated  this  warning  to  Judas, 
that  he  might  either  repent  and  remain  a  disciple, 


342  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

or   at   any  rate  openly  join  the   enemy.     But   avarice 

is    a    vice  generally    accompanied    by    besotted    ob- 
stinacy. 


CHAPTER   XL. 

EATING      WITH      UNWASHED       HANDS. INWARD      AND 

OUTWARD   DEFILEMENT. 

Matt.  xv.  1-20 ;  Mark  vii.  1-23. 

THE   Pharisees    had   established   a   system   of    ab- 
lutions  so   minute    as   to   be    an   intolerable   burden. 
Twenty-six  different  directions   were  given  for  wash- 
ing the   hands  in   the   morning   alone,    and   countless 
other  regulations  about  cleansing  not  only  the  per- 
son but  everything  made  use  of,  all  on  pretence  of 
avoiding  legal  uncleanness.     This  almost  incredible 
network  of  observances  entangled  men  at  every  step 
and  was  insisted  on  with  rigor,  even  with  fierceness. 
Naturally  it   diverted   men   from   the   substance  of 
the  Mosaic   law,  and   elevated   outward  conformity 
above    inward    principle.     One   might  contract   un- 
cleanness twenty  times  a  day,   often  without  being 
aware  of  it ;  and  how  serious  a  matter  this  was  is 
« They  found  fault. »    known  from   the   saying  of  their  Rabbis,  "  He  who 
sits  down  to  table  with  hands  unwashed  is  as   guilty 
as  one  who  commits  adultery." 

Jesus  emancipated  His  Apostles  from  this  slavery, 
this  nursing  mother  of  hypocrites  ;  and  they  openly 
disregarded  these  customs,  much  to  the  scandal  of 
the  Pharisees.  These  finally  took  our  Saviour  to 
task  for  it.  They  were  some  of  those  sent  down  from 
Jerusalem  to  spy  upon  our  Saviour.  * '  And  there 
assembled  together  unto  Him  the  Pharisees  and  some 
of  the  Scribes,  coming  from  Jerusalem.  And  when 
they  had  seen  some  of  His  disciples  eat  bread  with 


INWARD  AND  OUTWARD  DEFILEMENT.  343 

common,  that  is,  with  unwashed  hands,  they  found 
fault.  For  the  Pharisees  and  all  the  Jews  eat  not 
without  often  washing  their  hands,  holding  the  tradi- 
tion of  the  ancients,  and  when  they  come  from  the 
market,  unless  they  be  washed,  they  eat  not,  and 
many  other  things  there  are  that  have  been  delivered 
to  them  to  observe,  the  washing  of  cups,  and  of 
pots,  and  of  brazen  vessels,  and  of  beds.  And  the 
Pharisees  and  Scribes  asked  Him  :  Why  do  not  Thy 
disciples  walk  according  to  the  tradition  of  the 
ancients  ?  but  they  eat  bread  with  common  [unclean] 
hands."  A  hot  rebuke  was  the  answer  to  their  com- 
plaint, a  rebuke  which  cut  to  the  root  of  their  error, 
exposing  the  human  and  therefore  usurped  authority 
of  their  traditions  :  ' '  Well  did  Isaias  prophesy  of  you 
hypocrites  as  it  is  written  :  This  people  honoreth  Me 
with  their  lips,  but  their  heart  is  far  from  Me.  And  in 
vain  do  they  worship  Me,  teaching  doctrines  and  precepts  of 
men.  For  leaving  the  commandment  of  God,  you  hold 
the  tradition  of  men,  the  washing  of  pots  and  cups,  and 
many  other  things  you  do  like  to  these."  External  ob- 
servance has  its  place,  but  not  at  any  time  as  standing 
alone,  nor  ever  without  the  authority  of  God.  Valid 
external  religion  is  like  the  body,  a  God-given  external 
help  to  the  soul:  but  the  soul  is  always  the  chief  thing. 
The  Pharisees  and  Scribes  unlawfully  thrust  their 
system  of  outward  observances  into  the  holiest  relations 
of  life.  The  Master  instances:  "Well  do  you  make 
void  the  commandment  of  God,  that  you  may  keep 
your  own  tradition.  For  Moses  said  :  Honor  thy  father 
and  thy  mother,  and  he  that  shall  curse  his  father  or 
mother,  dying  let,  him  die.  But  you  say,,  if  a  man 
shall  say  to  his  father  or  mother,  Corban  (which  is 
a  gift),  whatsoever  is  from  me  shall  profit  thee. 
And  further  you  suffer  him  not  to  do  anything  for 


344  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

his  father  or  mother,  making  void  the  word  of  God 
by  your  own  tradition  which  you  have  given  forth. 
And  many  other  such  like  things  you  do." 

Upon  this  He  turned  to  the  multitude  and  ad- 
dressed them  on  this  topic,  a  practice  of  His  which 
enraged  the  Scribes,  for  it  was  appealing  from  their 
formalism  and  pettiness  to  the  simple,  good  sense  of 
a  religious  people:  "And  having  called  together  the 
multitude  unto  Him,  He  said  unto  them:  Hear  ye 
and  understand,  not  that  which  goeth  into  the  mouth 
defileth  a  man,  but  what  cometh  out  of  the  mouth, 
this  defileth  a  man."  And  He  laid  stress  upon  it,  say- 
ing :  "  If  any  one  have  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear." 
Even  the  holy  practice  of  fasting,  valued  by  the 
Saviour  Himself  as  of  divine  institution,  depended 
for  its  worth  on  the  interior  sentiment  of  repentance. 
Jesus  would  rather  a  man  should  eat  a  full  meal 
and  be  good  natured  than  utter  proud  censure  of 
his  neighbor  on  a  fasting  stomach.  And  when  the 
disciples  told  Him  of  the  scandal  taken  by  the  Phari- 
sees on  account  of  this  teaching,  He  said:  "Every 
plant  which  My  heavenly  Father  hath  not  planted 
shall  be  rooted  up.  Let  them  alone,  they  are  blind, 
and  leaders  of  the  blind.  And  if  the  blind  lead  the 
blind,  both  fall  into  the  pit."  But  when  He  came 
indoors  He  gave  them  a  fuller  explanation  about  fast- 
ing, reproaching  them  as  being  themselves  "without 
knowledge.  Understand  you  not  that  everything 
from  without,  entering  into  a  man,  cannot  defile  him? 
But  it  entereth  not  into  his  heart,  but  goeth  into 
the  belly,  and  goeth  out  into  the  privy,  purging  all 
meats.  But  the  things  which  proceed  out  of  the 
mouth  come  forth  from  the  heart,  and  those  defile  a 
man.  For  from  the  heart  come  forth  evil  thoughts, 
murders,  adulteries,  fornications,  thefts,  false  testi- 


INWARD  AND  OUTWARD  DEFILEMENT. 


345 


monies,  covetousness,  wickedness,  deceit,  lascivious- 
ness,  an  evil  eye,  blasphemy,  pride,  foolishness.  These 
are  the  things  which  defile  a  man  ;  but  to  eat  with 
unwashed  hands  doth  not  defile  a  man." 

Real  uncleanness  is  a  guilty  conscience.  The  con- 
sciousness of  wilful  disobedience  to  the  known  law 
of  God,  whether  it  command  fasting  or  feasting,  is 
the  only  uncleanness  properly  so  called.  Hating  and 
drinking  is  an  indifferent  act  until  it  crosses  God's 
will.  It  may  borrow  from  that  will  a  moral  dignity 
of  the  highest  sort,  but  it  is  sinful  under  any  condi- 
tions if  against  that  will.  It  is  so  with  all  external 
practices  of  religion.  They  are  calculated  to  deepen 
interior  conviction  by  outward  expression,  to  increase 
merit  by  external  constancy,  to  draw  others  onward 
by  good  example — all  conditioned  upon  the  intention, 
the  secret  attitude  of  the  soul  towards  God.  Hence 
in  those  holy  observances  called  the  sacraments,  which 
Christ  Himself  instituted  as  outward  signs  and 
channels  of  inward  grace,  before  approaching  them 
the  Christian  strictly  examines  his  soul's  interior 
condition,  aided  by  the  Christian  ministry  which  has 
them  in  custody  and  imparts  them. 

The  real  man  is  both  inner  and  outer,  and  the  per- 
fect agreement  of  these  two  orders  of  life  is  human 
conduct  brought   to   perfection.     Fanaticism    would 
dispense  the  soul  of  man  from  all  external  aids  of] 
religion ;  formalism  would  make  the  totality  of  reli- 
gion a  series  of  external  practices.     Both  are  wrong. 
The  religion  of  Christ  is  alone  right.     That  unites 
the  inner  life  of  divine  grace  with  the  outer  life, 
and  thereby  produces  within  our  souls  the  highest 
results  in  interior  love  and  faith  and  trustful  con- 
fidence, adorned  by  the  most  beautiful  and  edify- 
ing expression  of  the  same  in  outward  observance. 


"Holding  the  tradition 
of  the  ancients." 


346  ^  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER 

SYRO-PHC^NICIAN     WOMAN. 

Matt.  xv.  21—38;  Mark  vii.  24.—  37. 

ND    rising    from    thence    He    went    into    the    coasts 

of  Tyre  and  Sidon."     Jesus  knew  that  His  enemies 

in   high    places    were   ready   to   put   Him    to  death  ; 

or,  more  accurately,  to  assist  others  to  do  it.     Flight, 

at  least   for  a   time,  had  become   necessary,  and    He 

knew  that  a  temporary    security    could    be   had    by 

crossing   the   province  of  Galilee   in  a  northwesterly 

direction    to    the    borders   of    Tyre    and    Sidon,  the 

neighborhood    of    the    heathen    Gentiles.     So   secret 

were   His  designs    that  when    He  had    passed   over 

the  smiling  upland  country  of  Galilee,  perhaps  making 

the  journey  by  night,  and  had   found  the  shelter  He 

sought,  He    tried    to    keep     for    awhile    in     hiding  : 

"And  entering  into  a  house,  He  would  that  no  man 

should  know  it  ;  but  He  could  not  be  hid."     Not  only 

did    He    want    seclusion,    but    He    did   not   wish    to 

evangelize  the  heathen  ;  in   less  than  two   years   they 

would   have  His  Church  and  His  Apostles.     For  the 

present  every  rule  of  prudence   bound  Him  exclusive- 

ly  to   the  Israelites,    though  He  had   already  plainly 

taught  the  universality  of  the  Glad  Tidings. 

But  the  eager  heart  of  a  distressed  woman  antici- 
pated this  introduction  of  the  Gentiles,  helped,  per- 
haps, by  the  suggestions  of  some  of  the  devout  women 
always  in  the  Master's  following  ;  or  perhaps  she 
was  a  Jewish  proselyte.  At  any  rate,  she  knew  who 
He  was,  and  knew  it  accurately,  and  was  full  of  faith 
in  Him  :  "A  woman  of  Chanaan  came  out  of  these 
coasts,  and  crying  out  said  to  Him,  Have  mercy  on 
me,  O  Lord,  Thou  Son  of  David,  my  daughter  is 


THE  SYRO-PHCENICIAN  WOMAN. 


347 


grievously  troubled  by  a  devil.  .  But  He  answered 
her  not  a  word."  Too  kind  to  deny  her,  He  was 
yet  unwilling  to  advertise  His  coming  by  a  miracle, 
or  to  overleap  the  bounds  of  His  mission.  But  a 
mother's  heart  was  her  advocate.  She  ran  along  after 
Him  beseeching  '  *  that  He  would  cast  forth  the  devil 
out  of  her  daughter."  Finally  the  disciples  interfered  ; 
they  were  moved,  doubtless,  by  pity 
for  her,  but  also,  perhaps,  by  fear 
of  her  gathering  the  people  by  her 
loud  pleading.  "Send  her  away," 
was  their  form  of  asking  for  the 
miracle,  "for  she  crieth  after  us." 
Then  Jesus  said  these  words — very 
hard  words  from  one  so  kind,  that 
is,  if  He  intended  them  for  the  wo- 
man's ears  ;  in  that  case  He  had 
made  up  His  mind  to  cure  the 
daughter,  but  would  strengthen  the 
faith  of  the  mother :  "I  was  not 
sent  but  to  the  sheep  that  are  lost 
of  the  house  of  Israel."  It  may  be 
that  He  spoke  only  to  His  Apostles. 
"  But  she  came  and  adored  Him  say- 
ing, Lord  help  me  !  "  Upon  which 
she  was  given  a  blow  that  would 
have  silenced  any  ordinary  soul,  but 
was  in  her  case  calculated  to  develop  to  the  uttermost 
her  love  of  her  daughter  and  her  faith  in  Israel's  Mes- 
sias  :  "  Suffer  first  the  children  to  be  filled,  for  it  is  not 
good  to  take  the  bread  from  the  children  and  cast  it  to 
the  dogs."  The  renowned  virtue  of  faith  rings  out  in 
this  Chanaanitish  woman's  answer:  "Yea,  Lord,  for 
the  whelps  also  eat  under  the  table  of  the  crumbs 
of  the  children."  I  am  not  a  child  of  the  household, 


"  SEND    HER    AWAY,  FOR    SHE    CRIETH    AF- 
TER   US." 

And  behold  a  woman  of  Chanaan  who 
came  out  of  those  coasts,  crying  out,  said 
to  him  :  Have  mercy  on  me,  O  Lord,  thou 
Son  of  David,  my  daughter  is  grievously 
troubled  by  a  devil.  Who  answered  her 
not  a  word.  And  his  disciples  came  and 
besought  him,  saying :  Send  her  away, 
for  she  crieth  after  us.  For  the  woman 
was  a  Gentile,  a  Syro-Phrenician  born.  And 
she  besought  him  that  he  would  cast  forth 
the  devil  out  of  her  daughter.  And  he 
answering,  said  :  I  was  not  sent  but  to  the 
sheep  that  are  lost  of  the  house  of  Israel. 
But  she  came  and  adored  him,  saying : 
Lord,  help  me.  Who  answering  said : 
Suffer  first  the  children  to  be  filled,  for  it  is 
not  good  to  take  the  bread  from  the  chil- 
dren, and  cast  it  to  the  dogs.  But  she 
answered  and  said  to  him  :  Yea,  Lord,  for 
the  whelps  also  eat  under  the  table,  of  the 
crumbs  of  the  children.  Then  Jesus  an- 
swering, said  to  her :  O  woman,  great  is 
thy  faith,  be  it  done  to  thee  as  thou  wilt ; 
for  this  saying,  go  thy  way,  the  devil  is 
gone  out  of  thy  daughter.  And  when  she 
was  come  into  her  house,  she  found  the 
girl  lying  upon  the  bed,  and  that  the  devil 
was  gone  out.  And  her  daughter  was  cured 
from  that  hour. 


348 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


"  I  was  not  sent  but  to  the  sheep  that  are 
lost  of  the  house  of  Israel." 


as  if  to  say,  but  yet  I  am  at  least  the  Master's  dog  ; 

I   am  not  worthy   of  a   full   meal,    yet   surely  I   may 

be  given  the  leavings  of  the  children — humility,  trust, 
persistence,  courage,  fidelity  to  the 
demoniac  daughter  are  the  great 
qualities  of  this  woman's  prayer. 
It  was  a  prayer  of  faith — faith  bred 
amid  the  idols  of  wood  and  stone 
and  the  unclean  rites  of  paganism. 
It  was  instantly  rewarded.  "  O  wo- 
man," exclaimed  Jesus,  "  great  is 
thy  faith,  be  it  done  to  thee  as  thou 
wilt ;  for  this  saying  go  thy  way, 
the  devil  is  gone  out  of  thy  daughter. 
And  her  daughter  was  cured  from 
that  hour."  What  effect,  we  may 
ask,  had  this  showing  of  Gentile 
faith  on  the  Apostles?  Perhaps  it 
astonished  them  more  than  the  mira- 
cle itself,  for  miracles  had  become 
common  occurrences.  But  some  of 
them  must  have  thought  of  the  great 

future   of  the   Glad   Tidings   among   the   heathen    as 

foreshadowed  by  this  occurrence. 


MIRACLES  IN  THE  DECAPOLIS.  349 


CHAPTER  XLH. 

IN       THE        DECAPOLIS. — HEALING      THE      DEAF       AND 

DUMB     MAN. SECOND    MIRACLE    OF    THE    LOAVES 

AND    FISHES. 

Matt.  xv.  29—39  ;  Mark  vii.  31—37,  and  viii.  i—io. 

WE  do  not  know  precisely  how  long  a  time  Jesus 
and  His  disciples  remained  in  the  pagan  communi- 
ties along  the  borders  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  nor  the 
exact  road  He  took  when  He  came  back  east  on  His 
way  towards  the  Decapolis.  There  was  a  choice  of 
routes.  The  Decapolis  lies  east  of  the  Jordan  and 
south  of  Lake  Genesareth.  On  consulting  the  map 
we  find  that  Jesus  could  have  followed  the  Mediter- 
ranean coast  roads  southward  till  near  Mount  Carmel, 
and  then,  by  the  valley  of  the  Kishon  and  passing 
through  His  old  home  at  Nazareth,  He  could  reach 
the  banks  of  the  Jordan  amid  the  cities  whose  num- 
ber, ten,  gave  the  Decapolis  its  name.  But  this  is 
not  the  route  our  Saviour  chose,  for  it  would  have 
brought  Him  again  into  immediate  contact  and  con- 
flict with  His  enemies.  Therefore  "He  came  by 
Sidon  to  the  sea  of  Galilee"  ;  that  is  to  say,  going 
northward  from  Tyre  to  Sidon,  thence  He  started 
straight  eastward.  This  would  take  Him  across  the 
river  Leontis  and  the  upper  waters  of  the  Jordan,  and 
then  along  the  foot-hills  of  the  Le- 
banon mountains.  Turning  south- 
ward, and  making  a  detour  to  the 
east,  to  avoid  the  shores  of  Genesa- 
reth at  Bethsaida,  He  finally  reach- 
ed the  Decapolis  :  such  is  our  con- 
j  ecture .  It  was  a  j  ourney  of  several 
days,  made  doubtless  on  foot  (ex- 


EPHPHETA I 

And  they  bring  to  him  one  deaf  and  dumb, 
and  they  besought  him  that  he  would  lay 
his  hand  upon  him.  And  taking  him  from 
the  multitude  apart,  he  put  his  fingers  into 
his  ears,  and  spitting,  he  touched  his 
tongue,  and  looking  up  to  heaven  he 
groaned  and  said  to  him,  Ephpheta,  which 
is  :  Be  thou  opened.  And  immediately  his 
ears  were  opened  and  the  string  of  his 
tongue  was  loosed,  and  he  spoke  right. 


350 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

cept  that  we  may  suppose  the  wo- 
men of  the  company  rode  on  camels 
or  asses),  and  it  lay  for  the  most 
part  through  a  heathen  population. 
Many  opportunities  for  instruction 
were  improved  by  our  Saviour  as 
the  caravan  journeyed  on,  or  while 
the  camp  was  being  made  for  the 
night.  Meantime  the  honest  Israel- 
ites in  the  Saviour's  company  saw 
the  abominations  of  idolatry  in  false 
worship  and  foul  immorality  every- 
where about  them. 

In  the  Decapolis  the  mixed  popu- 
lation of  pagans  and  Hebrews  would 
help  Jesus  to  remain  comparatively 
unobserved,  if  such  a  thing  were 
any  longer  possible.  The  Evangelist 
St.  Mark  tells  us  what  happened.  Our  Saviour  used  a 
ceremony  for  this  miracle  of  curing  the  deaf  mute,  as 
He  did  for  various  others.  He  took  the  poor  creature 
apart  so  that  all  could  see  and  hear  what  was  done ;  He 
groaned  and  looked  up  to  heaven  ;  He  anointed  his 
tongue  with  spittle;  He  put  His  fingers  in  his  ears; 
He  solemnly  spoke  the  words  of  healing  to  the  man's 
senses  as  if  to  living  beings — "Be  thou  opened!" 
All  this  is  but  one  instance  of  the  Master's  use  of 
outward  forms  in  His  religion,  and  hence  a  lesson 
that  we  also  should  use  them.  This  particular  case 
is  notable  because  the  Christian  Church  has  adopted 
both  the  words  and  actions  in  her  ceremonies  of 
Baptism. 

"And  He  charged  them  that  they  should  tell  no 
man.  But  the  more  He  charged  them,  so  much  the 
more  a  great  deal  did  they  publish  it.  And  so  much 


"  I  HAVE  COMPASSION  ON  THE  MULTITUDE." 

And  Jesus,  in  those  days  again  when 
there  was  a  great  multitude,  and  had  noth- 
ing to  eat,  calling  his  disciples  together,  he 
saith  to  them  :  I  have  compassion  on  the 
multitude,  for  behold  they  have  now  been 
with  me  three  days,  and  have  not  what  to 
eat ;  and  if  I  send  them  away  fasting  to 
their  home,  they  will  faint  in  the  way,  for 
some  of  them  came  from  afar  off.  And  the 
disciples  say  unto  him  :  Whence  then  shall 
we  have  so  many  loaves  in  the  desert  as  to 
fill  so  great  a  multitude  ?  And  Jesus  said 
to  them :  How  many  loaves  have  you  ? 
But  they  said :  Seven,  and  a  few  little 
fishes.  And  he  commanded  the  multitude 
to  sit  down  upon  the  ground.  And  taking 
the  loaves  and  the  fishes,  and  giving  thanks, 
he  brake  and  gave  to  his  disciples,  and  the 
disciples  gave  to  the  people.  And  they 
did  all  eat  and  were  filled.  And  they  took 
up  seven  basketsful  of  what  remained  of 
the  fragments.  And  they  that  did  eat  were 
four  thousand  men,  besides  children  and 
women.  And  having  dismissed  the  multi- 
tude he  went  up  into  a  boat  and  came  into 
the  coasts  of  Magedan  (or)  into  the  parts  of 
Dalmanutha. 


MIRACLES  IN  THE  DECAPOLIS. 


the  more  did  they  wonder,  saying  :..  He  hath 
done  all  things  well,  He  hath  made  both  the 
deaf  to  hear  and  the  dumb  to  speak."  In 
vain  did  He  command  secrecy ;  He  was  pub- 
lished everywhere  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
as  He  came  to  the  shores  of  the  lake  multi- 
tudes of  the  lame  and  the  deaf  and 
the  blind  were  cured,  so  that  the  very 
heathens  ''glorified  the  God  of  Israel." 
"And  when  Jesus  had  passed  away 
from  them  He  came  nigh  the  Sea  of 
Galilee,  and  going  up  into  a  mountain 
He  sat  there.  And  there  came  to  Him  great 
multitudes  having  with  them  the  dumb,  the 
blind,  the  lame,  the  maimed,  and  many  others, 
and  they  cast  them  down  at  His  feet,  and  He 
healed  them.  So  that  the  multitudes  marvel- 
led seeing  the  dumb  speak,  the  lame  walk,  the 
blind  see,  and  they  glorified  the  God  of  Israel." 
It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  the 
Master  took  occasion  to  repeat  His  miracle  of 
the  multiplication  of  the  loaves  and  fishes. 
It  served  to  impress  with  His  authority  an 
assemblage  made  up  to  a  great  extent  of  pagans,  and 
to  reward  the  fidelity  of  many  faithful  men  and 
women  who,  with  their  families  of  children,  had  fol- 
lowed Him  for  three  days,  some  of  them  from  a 
distance.  When  Jesus  said:  "I  have  compassion 
on  the  multitude,"  His  disciples  knew  what  to  an- 
swer— almost  the  same  words  they  had  used  unwit- 
tingly to  stimulate  Him  to  the  previous  miracle : 
"Whence  shall  we  have  so  many  loaves?" — they 
had  but  seven  in  their  little  store  of  food,  and  a  few 
small  fishes.  Four  thousand  men,  not  counting  wo- 
men and  children,  were  fed  at  this  generous  banquet, 


An'd  looking  up  to  heaven 
He  groaned." 


352  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

and  seven  baskets  were  filled  with  what  was  left 
over.  When  all  was  done  He  sent  the  people  to  their 
homes,  and  entering  a  boat  crossed  over  the  lake. 


CHAPTER 

THE  PHARISEES  AGAIN  DEMAND  A  SIGN  IN  THE 
HEAVENS. — ''BEWARE  OF  THE  I^EAVEN  OP  THE 
PHARISEES.'' — THE  BUND  MAN  AT  BETHSAIDA. 

Matt.  xvi.  i— 12  ;  Mark  viii.  11-26. 

IT  is  not  certain  just  where  Magedan,  the  point 
on  the  lake  shore  to  which  Jesus  now  passed,  was 
situated,  but  it  was  very  likely  a  little  to  the  south 
of  Capharnaum.  The  Master  went  there  to  comfort 
His  many  faithful  followers  living  in  the  vicinity. 
They  needed  His  presence,  for  the  Pharisees  were 
active  against  His  teaching.  They  had  sought  the 
aid  of  the  Herodians,  as  we  have  seen,  and  even  took 
counsel  with  the  Sadducees,  their  bitter  enemies — any- 
thing to  destroy  Jesus.  The  Pharisees  did  not  hate 
the  Sadducees  less,  but  they  hated  Jesus  more.  "  And 
there  came  to  Him  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  tempting, 
and  they  asked  Him  to  show  them  a  sign  from  Heaven. 
And  sighing  deeply  in  spirit,  He  saith  :  Why  doth 
this  generation  ask  a  sign  ?  Amen,  I  say  to  you,  a 
sign  shall  not  be  given  to  this  generation.  When  it 
is  evening  you  say,  It  will  be  fine  weather,  for  the 
sky  is  red  ;  and  in  the  morning  :  To-day  there  will 
be  a  storm,  for  the  sky  is  red  and  lowering.  You 
know  then  how  to  discern  the  face  of  the  sky,  and 
can  you  not  know  the  signs  of  the  times  ?  A  wicked 
and  adulterous  generation  seeketh  after  a  sign,  and 
a  sign  shall  not  be  given  it,  but  the  sign  of  Jonas  the 
prophet." 


"BEWARE  THE  LEA  VEN  OF  THE  PHARISEES."  353 

Instantly  on  His  landing  they  tried  Him  about 
the  "sign  from  Heaven/'  meaning  some  portent  in 
the  sky.  Daniel  (vii.  13)  and  Joel  (iii.  15)  had 
prophesied  some  such  miracle,  and  as  Jesus  had 
not  yet  shown  it,  they  fancied  that  it  was  the  limit 
of  His  power.  Their  whole  mind  was  wrong.  They 
assumed  to  limit  and  to  judge  a  Being  whose  every 
discourse  was  full  of  divine  truth,  whose  every  step 
was  marked  by  prodigies  luminous  with  the  light 
of  heaven.  No  wonder  that  Jesus  sighed  deeply  at 
such  perverseness.  A  simple  mind  could  read  Him 
as  a  farmer  or  a  sailor  reads  the  signs  of  the  weather 
in  the  gathering  storm-clouds,  or  as  a  devout  soul 
perceives  God's  will  in  the  "  signs  of  the  times." 
Therefore  He  repeated  His  former  admonition :  "A 
wicked  and  adulterous  generation  seeketh  after  a  sign, 
and  a  sign  shall  not  be  given  it,  but  the  sign  of  Jonas 
the  prophet.  And  leaving  them  He  went  up  again 
into  the  ship  and  passed  to  the  other  side  of  the 
water."  But  He  did  not  depart,  we  may  be  assured, 
without  some  further  teaching  for  the  comfort  of  His 
followers  and  of  His  many  faithful  adherents  living  in 
that  vicinity. 

The  Messias  was  weary  of  heart.  With  all  His 
love,  His  heavenly  doctrine,  His  miracles,  what 
progress  had  He  made  ?  As  He  sailed  past  Ca- 
pharnaum  on  His  way  to  Bethsaida,  and  saw  its 
beautiful  streets  lined  with  pleasant  homes  and  cool 
gardens,  He  must  have  felt  downcast  to  think  that 
He  was  actually  avoiding  it,  sailing  around  it  for 
fear  of  His  enemies,  lest  His  very  Apostles  should  be 
contaminated.  The  alliance  of  the  Pharisees  with 
the  Herodians  gave  the  former  the  backing  of  the 
law,  the  brute  force  of  the  state.  It  was  now  not 
only  the  exponents  of  Jewish  orthodoxy  but  the 


354 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


"  He  led  him  out  of  the  town." 


BEWARE 


OF      THE      LEAVEN 
PHARISEES." 


OF      THE 


And  leaving  them,  he  went  up  again  into 
the  ship  and  passed  to  the  other  side  of 
the  water.  And  they  forgot  to  take  bread, 
and  they  had  but  one  loaf  with  them  in 
the  ship.  And  he  charged  them,  saying  : 
Take  heed  and  beware  of  the  leaven  of  the 
Pharisees,  and  the  leaven  of  Herod.  And 
they  reasoned  among  themselves,  saying  : 
Because  we  have  no  bread.  Which  Jesus 
knowing,  saith  to  them :  Why  do  you 
reason,  because  you  have  no  bread  ?  do 
you  not  yet  know  or  understand  ?  have 
you  still  your  heart  blinded  ?  having  eyes 
see  you  not  ?  and  having  ears  hear  you 
not  ?  neither  do  you  remember  ?  When  I 
broke  the  five  loaves  among  five  thousand, 
how  many  baskets  full  of  fragments  took 
you  up  ?  They  said  to  him  :  Twelve. 
When  also  the  seven  loaves  among  four 
thousand,  how  many  baskets  of  fragments 
took  you  up  ?  And  they  said  to  him  : 
Seven.  And  he  said  to  them :  Why  do 
you  not  understand,  that  it  was  not  con- 
cerning bread  I  said  to  you :  Beware  of 
the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  ? 
Then  they  understood  that  he  said,  not 
only  that  they  should  beware  of  the  leaven 
of  bread,  but  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Phari- 
sees and  Sadducees. 


officers  of  the  secular  law  and  the  sol- 
diers of  the  despot  that  He  had  to  fear. 
These  sad  thoughts  rose  to  His  lips  in  a 
tender  admonition  to  His  Apostles: 
'  *  Take  heed  and  beware  of  the  leaven 
of  the  Pharisees,  and  the  leaven  of 
Herod."  Now,  at  that  very  moment 
they  discovered  that  they  had  forgotten 
to  bring  a  supply  of  bread.  Poor  Apos- 
tles !  They  could  do  no  better  in  answer 
to  His  words  than  to  accuse  themselves 
of  this  bit  of  forgetfulness :  ' '  Because 
we  have  no  bread."  This,  however, 
served  their  Master  for  pushing  home 
His  warning:  "Why  do  you  reason, 
because  you  have  no  bread  ?  When 
I  broke  the  five  loaves  among  five 
thousand,  how  many  baskets  full  of 
fragments  took  you  up  ?  They  say 
to  Him :  Twelve.  When  also  the 
seven  loaves  among  four  thousand, 
how  many  baskets  of  fragments 
took  you  up?  And  they  say  to 
Him  :  Seven.  And  he  said  to  them  : 
Why  do  you  not  understand  that  it 
was  not  concerning  bread  I  said  to 
you,  Beware  of  the  leaven  of  the 
Pharisees  and  Sadducees  ?  "  As  a 
matter  of  fact  none  are  so  stupid  as 
the  morally  weak,  who  often  relapse 
after  repentance  because  they  eat  and 
drink  in  the  company  of  former  com- 
panions in  sin,  and  are  thereby  again 
leavened  with  corruption  ;  hence  our 
I^ord's  warning  to  His  disciples. 


THE  BLIND  MAN  A  T  BETH  SAID  A. 


355 


He  was  soon  out  of  reach  of .  the  Herodians,  a 
term  applied  to  the  minions  of  Herod-Antipas,  the 
murderer  of  the  Baptist.  The  transit  of  the  lake 
had  brought  our  Saviour  and  His  party  to  Bethsaida, 
a  town  in  the  dominions  of  Herod- Philip,  the  brother 
indeed  of  Antipas,  but  quite  unlike  him,  being  a 
peaceful  prince.  Bent  upon  a  special  purpose,  land- 
ing and  turning  northward,  the  Master  was  yet  un- 
able to  get  away  from  the  town  with- 
out a  miracle.  Using  this  occasion,  as 
He  had  recently  used  another,  to  teach 
the  value  of  emblems  and  signs  in  re- 
ligion, He  anointed  the  eyes  of  a  blind 
man,  to  whom  He  gave  sight,  with  spit- 
tle, and  touched  them  with  His  holy 
hand  :  "  They  brought  to  Him  a  blind 
man,  and  they  besought  Him  that  He 
would  touch  him.  And  taking  the 
blind  man  by  the  hand,  He  led  him 
out  of  the  town,  and  spitting  upon  his 
eyes,  laying  His  hands  on  him,  He  ask- 
ed him  if  he  oaw  anything.  And  look- 
ing up  he  said,  I  see  men  as  it  were 
trees  walking.  After  that  again,  He 
laid  His  hands  upon  his  eyes  and  he 
began  to  see,  and  was  restored  so  that 
he  saw  all  things  clearly."  It  is  sad  to  think  that 
the  first  act  of  thanksgiving  our  Saviour  was  con- 
strained to  ask  was  concealment  of  the  miracle  :  "Go 
into  thy  house,  and  if  thou  enter  into  the  town, 
tell  nobody." 


He  laid  His  hands  upon  his  eyes 
and  he  began  to  see." 


356  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER    XI.IV. 

"THOU   ART   PETER." 

Matt.  xvi.  13—19  ;  Mark  viii.  27-29  ;  Luke  ix.  18—20. 

A  SECLUDED  spot  was  necessary  for  our  Saviour's 
immediate  purpose.  This  was  the  establishment  of 
the  Apostle  Peter's  peculiar  authority,  and  that  of 
his  successors,  in  the  Christian  Church — THE  PAPACY. 

The  holy  company  ascended  the  eastern  bank  of  the 
Jordan,   passing    the  bridge  of  Jacob  and   the   bitter 
lake   of  Merom,    until    they  were  among   the    sources 
of  the   sacred   river.      It   was   near   Csesarea-Philippi 
that  they  encamped,  or  were  harbored  by  some  kindly 
Jewish  country  people.     Csesarea  was  the   capital   of 
the  tetrarchy  of  Herod-Philip,  a  pagan  city  in  which 
our  Hebrew   caravan    would   not   have    felt    itself   at 
home.     The   surrounding  country  was  partly  Hebrew 
and    partly  Gentile,    so    that    in    this    new    environ- 
ment the  Master,  now  far  removed  from  His  enemies, 
could  peacefully  develop  to    His  disciples   so  grave  a 
matter   as    that    of   the   paramount   authority  in   His 
Church.     Of  this  essential  feature  of   God's  spiritual 
kingdom   St.    Matthew   gives    our   Saviour's  teaching 
in  His   own  words,  only  a  fragment,    perhaps,    of  an 
extended  discourse,  but  the  entire  fulness   of  its  sub- 
stance.    That  the   Master   intended  the  time  and  the 
event   to    be   full   of  great    results   is    shown   by   St. 
lyuke's  statement  that  our  Saviour  "was  alone  pray- 
ing"   just  before   those  questions  and  answers  which 
are   of  such  moment  in  His  formative  action  on   His 
Church. 

He  introduces  His  doctrine  of  Peter's  supremacy 
by  a  demand  for  the  Apostles'  profession  of  faith  in 
His  Messias-ship  and  in  His  divinity.  They  must  have 


"THOU  ART  PETER." 


357 


understood  it  so,  when  He  said:  "Who  do  the  peo- 
ple say  that  the  Son  of  Man  is?  "  It  would  appear 
to  be  an  inopportune  moment  to  ask  such  a  question, 
to  subject  His  immediate  followers  to  such  an  ordeal, 
for  never  had  He  seemed  more  merely  human  than 
during  their  recent  journeyings — flights  from  His 
enemies,  as  they  might  better  be  called.  He  was 
even  anxious  to  hide  His  miracu- 
lous power,  working  not  many  mira- 
cles, and  commanding  concealment 
even  of  those  He  did  work.  The 
faith  which  under  these  conditions 
could  cry  out  with  the  quick  instinct 
of  unfaltering  loyalty,  ' '  Thou  art 
the  Son  of  God !  ' '  was  worthy  to 
be  the  enduring  basis  of  the  new 
religion,  root-faith,  rock-faith,  key- 
faith  ;  it  was  to  be  known  as  the 
Petrine  faith,  in  the  ages  to  come. 
"Who  do  the  people  say  that  the 
Son  of  Man  is  ?  But  they  said : 
Some  John  the  Baptist,  and  other 
some  KHas,  and  others  Jeremias  or 
one  of  the  prophets." 

This  shows  a  confused  faith  among  the  people,  or 
rather  an  introductory  one.  As  if  to  say,  Here  is  some 
mighty  teacher  sent  from  God,  but  we  know  not 
just  who  or  what  he  is.  Then  Jesus  tests  His 
Apostles.  Have  they  improved  upon  this  ?  Is  their 
faith  in  Him  clear  ?  Can  they  be  set  above  the  rest 
of  the  Jewish  world?  "Jesus  saith  to  them,  But  who 
do  you  say  that  I  am?"  He  must  have  something 
different  from  them.  If  they  are  what  they  should 
be,  He  is  to  them  not  simply  the  voice  of  one  in  the 
wilderness  calling  to  penance,  as  was  John ;  nor  the 


"THOU   ART   PETER." 

And  Jesus  came  into  the  quarters  of 
Caesarea  Philippi.  And  it  came  to  pass,  as 
he  was  alone  praying,  his  disciples  also 
were  with  him,  and  he  asked  them  say- 
ing :  Who  do  the  people  say  that  the  Son 
of  Man  is  ?  But  they  said :  Some  John 
the  Baptist,  and  other  some  Elias,  and 
others  Jeremias  or  one  of  the  prophets. 
Jesus  saith  to  them  :  But  who  do  you  say 
that  I  am  ?  Simon  Peter  answered  and 
said  :  Thou  art  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  liv- 
ing God.  And  Jesus  answering  said  to 
him  :  Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Bar-jona, 
because  flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed 
it  to  Thee,  but  My  Father  who  is  in 
heaven.  And  I  say  to  thee,  that  thou  art 
Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  My 
Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not 
prevail  against  it.  And  I  will  give  to  thee 
the  keys  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  And 
hatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  upon  earth,  it 
shall  be  bound  also  in  heaven,  and  what- 
soever thou  shalt  loose  on  earth,  it  shall 
be  loosed  also  in  heaven. 


358 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


return  of  mighty  Elias  or  Jeremias  to  recall  Israel 
to  primitive  fervor,  to  racial  independence,  to  holy 
wars  against  the  corrupt  and  idolatrous  nations 
of  the  world.  Jesus  called  men  to  pen- 
ance, as  did  John;  He  mourned  over  the 
decay  of  true  religious  fervor,  as  did 
Jeremias;  He  had  the  lofty  fearlessness 
which  distinguished  Klias.  •  But  He 
is  infinitely  more  than  any  or  all 
of  these.  He  is  the  Master  and 
Lord  of  both  people  and  pro- 
phets. He  is  the  Messias.  He 
is  prophet  of  Himself,  and  He 
is  His  own  voice.  He  is  the 
Son  of  God.  Had  His  Apostles 
become  persuaded  of  that  ?  Did 
they  not  only  know  it,  but  know 
it  in  a  way  different  from  the 
common  opinion  ?  Did  they  feel 
the  spell  of  Messianic  faith  ?  He  will  apply  the  test : 
11  Who  do  you  say," — how  solemnly  and  yet  how 
tenderly  He  must  have  asked! — "Who  do  you  say 
that  the  Son  of  Man  is?  "  It  was  the  loving  Father 
appealing  from  the  rumors  and  opinions  of  the  outside 
world  to  His  own  children  for  the  true  estimate  of 
His  character.  The  appeal  was  not  in  vain. 

The  answer  came  from  Peter.  Nor  was  it  on  ac- 
count of  the  ardor  of  his  love,  the  impulsiveness  of  his 
nature,  the  sincerity  of  his  character  that  he  made 
his  great  confession  of  faith.  But  it  was  now  an 
inspiration  from  on  high  which  caused  him  to  utter 
the  Apostolic  faith ;  the  Heavenly  Father  stirred 
his  heart  and  opened  his  lips.  His  voice  rang  out  in 
tones  clear  and  frank,  thrilling  with  the  conscious- 
ness not  only  of  his  own  sincerity  and  the  loyal  ad- 


;  Whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose  on  earth,  it  shall 
be  loosed  also  in  Heaven." 


"THOU  ART  PETER." 


359 


hesion  of  his  fellow-Apostles,  but  also  of  a  secret 
revelation  from  Heaven :  ' '  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  the  living  God  !  " 

The  response  of  our  Saviour  to  the  Apostolic  pro- 
fession of  faith  was  instant,  and  it  was  of  supreme  im- 
portance. It  concerned  Peter  in  an  exclusive  manner  ; 
for  as  God  had  given  that  Apostle  a  particular  in- 
spiration of  faith,  Jesus  accordingly  bestowed  011  him 
a  peculiar  dignity.  "And  Jesus  answering  said  to 
him  :  Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Bar-jona,  because  flesh 
and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  to  thee,  but  My 
Father  who  is  in  heaven.  And  I  say  to  thee  that 
thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  My 
Church  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against 
it."  Long  before  this  Christ  had  set  Peter  apart 
from  his  fellow-disciples  by  giving  him  a  new  name, 
Simon  Peter,  Simon  the  Rock ;  and  now  He  explains 
the  meaning  of  that  name  in  reference  to  His  Church. 
And  under  what  very  solemn  circumstances :  immedi- 
ately following  that  Apostle's  public  profession  of  the 
faith  of  his  brethren  and  himself,  a  faith  inspired  by 
the  divine  Father,  Jesus  associates  His  Church  with 
the  faith  of  Peter  as  an  architect  places  a  building  on 
its  foundations. 

Peter  is  the  foundation  of  the  Church,  a  term 
now  used  by  the  Saviour  for  the  first  time ;  Peter 
is  placed  in  inseparable  connection  with  His  Church's 
indestructibility.  Peter  and  Peter's  faith  is  the 
foundation  of  the  Church,  which  shall  not  be  mov- 
ed by  all  the  powers  of  darkness  because  rooted 
and  grounded  in  divine  truth  by  means  of  Peter's 
gift  of  faith — a  special  inner  illumination  of  truth, 
a  special  guidance  in  its  public  expression.  Peter 
and  his  successors  deal  directly  with  God  for 
guidance  as  teachers  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  the  living  God. 


1  Thou     art     the 
Christ,  the    Son   of 


360  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

with  all   the  world    in    the    extent  of    their    jurisdic- 
tion.* 

But  our  Saviour  was  not  content  with  naming  Pe- 
ter as  the  Rock  among  the  Apostles.  He  adds  a  yet 
more  perfect  description  of  his  dignity.  He  had  used 
the  word  Church ;  he  now  passes  to  the  familiar  term 
of  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  gives  Peter  its  Keys — a 
word  universally  accepted  as  the  symbol  of  dominion. 
"  And  I  will  give  to  thee  the  keys  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven.  And  whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  upon 
earth,  shall  be  bound  also  in  Heaven,  and  whatsoever 
thou  shalt  loose  on  earth,  it  shall  be  loosed  also  in 
Heaven." 

Later  on  the  L,ord  will  give  the  power  of  binding 
and  loosing  to  all  the  Apostles,  and  this  is  an  attri- 
bute of  the  entire  Apostolic  order,  the  Catholic  epis- 
copate under  the  presidency  of  Peter's  successor.  But 
to  Peter  and  his  successors  is  granted  the  fulness  of  this 
power,  being  here  given  singly  to  him  and  on  a  separate 
occasion.  This  establishes  the  rule  of  one  Apostolic 
head  over  the  entire  Church ;  it  institutes  a  living  unit 
of  government,  positive,  active,  perpetual,  not  a  passive 
primacy,  much  less  an  honorary  distinction. 

From  this  moment  onward  whenever  the  Apos- 
tles hear  Jesus  name  His  Church,  they  will  think  of 
its  foundation  rock ;  whenever  He  speaks  of  His 
Kingdom,  they  will  recall  that  there  is  one  among 
them  who  has  received  the  keys  of  that  Kingdom^ 

*  More  of  this  we  shall  see  when  we  come  to  Peter's  consecration  by 
the  prayer  of  Christ  to  confirm  his  brother  Apostles  (Luke  xxii.  31,  32)  ; 
and  when  he  is  chosen  from  among  the  other  shepherds  of  Christ's  flock 
and  appointed  the  chief  shepherd  (John  xxi.  14—17). 


JESUS  FORETELLS  HIS  DEA  TH.  361 


CHAPTER 

JESUS  FORETELLS   HIS   DEATH. 
Matt.  xvi.  20-28;  Mark  viii.  30-30;  Luke  ix.  21-27. 

Saviour  "  commanded  His  disciples  that 
they  should  tell  no  man  that  He  was 
Jesus  the  Christ."  Therefore  He 
must  have  had  with  Him  only  His 
especial  followers,  the  Apostles  and  a 
small  number  of  disciples ;  for  we 
could  hardly  understand  His  caution- 
ing in  such  a  manner  the  usual  great  assemblage 
which  followed  Him.  Every  word  now  said  in  His 
favor  hastened  His  battle  with  His  enemies,  and  be- 
fore that  happened  He  desired  to  teach  more  truth 
and  work  more  wonders.  Nor  would  He  finish  His 
work  anywhere  but  at  the  Holy  City,  and  the  indis- 
cretion of  His  Apostles  might  defeat  this  purpose 
by  bringing  the  conspiracy  of  the  Pharisees  to  a 
head  in  the  provinces. 

And  so  He  turned  the  loving  glances  of  His  fol- 
lowers to  the  end  of  His  life,  a  bitter  and  terrible 
end,  whose  shadow  never  quite  lifted  from  His  own 
spirit.  Added  to  their  faith  in  His  divine  mission 
must  be  the  cruel  test  of  fidelity  to.  His  death. 

With  this  purpose  our  Saviour,  dropping  all  figures, 
told  them  the  naked  and  horrible  truth,  no  longer 
veiled  under  the  type  of  Jonas,  or  of  the  destruction 
of  the  Temple,  or  of  the  brazen  serpent,  but  plain 
as  open  words  could  make  it,  the  triumph  of  His 
enemies,  and  His  own  ignominy  and  death.  Peter 
mistook  his  duty  upon  hearing  this,  and  would 
stand  up  and  fight  rather  than  lie  down  and  suffer: 
"  And  from  that  time  Jesus  began  to  show  to  His 


362  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

disciples  that  He  must  go  to  Jerusalem,  and  suffer 
many  things  from  the  ancients  and  scribes  and  chief 
priests,  and  be  put  to  death,  and  the  third  day  rise 
again.  And  He  spoke  the  word  openly.  And  Peter 
taking  Him  began  to  rebuke  Him,  saying  :  Lord,  be 
it  far  from  Thee,  this  shall  not  be  unto  Thee."  I,ove 
revolted,  faith  revolted,  manhood  revolted ;  but  it 
was  human  love  and  faith,  it  was  unregenerate  man- 
hood :  this  was  not  the  sentiment  that  had  been  re- 
vealed to  Peter  by  the  Heavenly  Father.  What  Peter 
meant  was  resistance  by  force  of  arms  ;  but  this  would 
be  to  thrust  the  miserable  passion  of  war  between 
Jesus  and  the  race  He  would  redeem.  The  Apostles, 
those  courageous  children  of  a  warlike  race,  were  all 
of  the  same  mind  as  Peter.  Oh,  how  hard  it  has 
ever  been  to  teach  naturally  noble  characters  that 
the  militant  virtues  of  Christ  are  all  intended  for 
self-conquest — not  anything  left  wherewith  to  conquer 
or  even  to  resist  the  onslaughts  of  human  enemies. 
The  rebuke  of  Jesus  to  Peter  was  the  bitterest  He 
ever  uttered  to  one  of  His  own,  except  at  the  last 
to  Judas ;  it  was  administered  before  them  all,  for 
they  were  all  involved  in  the  fault.  How  deep  a 
pain  for  Peter  to  hear  himself  called  by  the  name 
of  Satan — not  that  the  term  exclusively  meant  the 
Bvil  One  ;  but  it  did  mean  adversary  :  Jesus  ' l  turn- 
ing about  and  seeing  His  disciples,  said  to  Peter: 
Go  behind  Me,  Satan,  thou  art  a  scandal  unto  Me, 
because  thou  savorest  not  of  the  things  that  are  of 
God,  but  the  things  that  are  of  men." 

And  thereupon  Jesus  called  up  the  multitude  and 
to  the  whole  assemblage,  including  His  chosen  fol- 
lowers, He  delivered  a  discourse  on  the  Cross.  In 
prophetic  tones  He  spoke  from  His  gibbet,  as  He 
was  destined  to  do  in  actual  fact  just  before  He  died 


JESUS  FORETELLS  HIS  DEATH. 


363 


upon  it.  The  cross  is  the  balance  on  which  our 
Saviour  weighs  the  various  great  values  of  the  world, 
including  life  itself;  and  to  the  following  effect:  "If 
any  man  will  come  after  Me  let  him  deny  himself, 
and  take  up  his  cross  daily,  and  follow  Me.  For 
whosoever  will  save  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  who- 
soever will  lose  his  life  for  My  sake  and  the  Gospel, 
shall  save  it.  For  what  doth  it  profit  a  man  if  he 
gain  the  whole  world  and  suffer  the 
loss  of  his  soul  ?  Or  what  shall  a 
man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul?" 
Here  we  have  Christ's  theory  of 
values.  All  that  man  loves  in  this 
life  must  go  to  purchase  what  he 
shall  enjoy  hereafter.  Self-interest, 
pleasure,  human  glory  are  like  gold 
and  silver — good  to  purchase  with, 
but  not  good  to  eat  or  to  be  clothed 
with  or  sheltered  under.  It  is  God's 
will  that  we  shall  first  receive  the 
good  things  of  this  life  from  His 
hands,  and  then  prove  our  love  of 
Him  by  giving  them  back  to  Him, 


THE   DOCTRINE   OF   THE   CROSS. 

And  calling  the  multitude  together 
with  his  disciples,  he  said  to  them  :  If  any 
man  will  come  after  me,  let  him  deny 
himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily  and 
follow  me.  For  whosoever  will  save  his 
life  shall  lose  it,  and  whosoever  will  lose 
his  life  for  my  sake  and  the  Gospel,  shall 
save  it.  For  what  shall  it  profit  a  man  if 
he  gain  the  whole  world  and  suffer  the 
loss  of  his  soul  ?  Or  what  shall  a  man 
give  in  exchange  for  his  soul  ?  For  he 
that  shall  be  ashamed  of  me  and  of  my 
words  in  this  adulterous  and  sinful  gener- 
ation, the  Son  of  Man  also  will  be  ashamed 
of  him,  when  he  shall  come  in  the  glory 
of  his  Father  with  the  holy  angels  ;  and 
then  will  he  render  to  every  man  accord- 
ing to  his  works.  Amen  I  say  to  you, 
there  are  some  standing  here  that  shall 
not  taste  death  till  they  see  the  Son  of 
Man  coming  in  his  kingdom. 


trusting  to  Him  blindly  for  the  good  things  of  the 
next  life.  Now,  though  this  doctrine  is  plain  to  the 
true  philosopher  once  he  knows  what  God  and  man 
are  to  each  other,  it  is  hateful  to  the  worldling.  Our 
Saviour  makes  it,  therefore,  a  most  essential  doctrine 
in  His  religion. 

The  Cross  typifies  Christ.  "With  Christ,"  says 
St.  Paul,  "  I  am  nailed  to  the  Cross."  And  again, 
"  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Cross."  To  be  ashamed 
of  poverty  and  of  meekness  is  to  be  ashamed  of 
Christ :  they  are  the  badges  of  the  love  of  Christ. 
Our  Saviour  goes  on :  "He  that  shall  be  ashamed 


364  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

of  Me  and  of  My  words  in  this  adulterous  and  sinful 
generation,  the  Son  of  Man  also  shall  be  ashamed 
of  him,  when  He  shall  come  in  the  glory  of  His 
Father  with  the  holy  angels  ;  and  then  He  will  render 
to  every  man  according  to  his  works."  This  reference 
to  the  great  day  of  reckoning  fixes  the  law  of  self- 
denial  as  part  of  the  code  by  which  men  shall  be 
tried  in  that  awful  court,  the  other  part  being  love 
of  our  neighbor.  Nor  was  the  world  to  be  without  a 
triumphant  spectacle  of  this  supremacy  of  the  Cross, 
for  His  resurrection  and  ascension  would  display  it. 
Hence  He  said:  ''Amen  I  say  to  you,  there  are 
some  standing  here  who  shall  not  taste  death  till 
they  see  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  His  kingdom." 


CHAPTER  XLVI. 

THE    TRANSFIGURATION. 
Matt.  xvii.  i-ij ;  Mark  ix.  1-12  ;  Luke  ix.  28-36. 

THK  souls  of  the  Apostles  were  oppressed  by  the 
shadow  of  the  Cross.  Yet  the  dominant  note  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  is  not  sadness,  it  is  joy — not  indeed 
the  giddy  laugh  and  the  empty  mirth  of  men  thought- 
less of  eternity,  but  the  joy  inseparable  from  the  con- 
sciousness of  love.  Love  is  the  only  joy  of  a  reason- 
able life,  and  the  friendship  of  Jesus  is  the  perfection 
of  love.  The  Apostles  were  but  novices  in  this  school 
of  joy,  and  the  prophecy  of  the  Cross  hung  their  souls 
in  mourning.  Even  after  so  long  journeying  and 
teaching  and  communing  with  the  Master,  His  gentle 
resignation  to  failure  and  to  death  was  a  bitter 
temptation  to  them.  Hence  our  Lord  vouchsafed  to 
them  His  Transfiguration. 

The  departure  from  the  upper  waters  of  the  Jordan 


THE  TRANSFIGURATION. 


365 


and  the  passage  across  that  river 
into  Galilee,  as  well  as  the  time 
spent  on  the  way  to  Mount  Thabor, 
a  point  some  miles  eastward  from 
Nazareth,  are  no  otherwise  chroni- 
cled than  by  the  statement  of  the 
Evangelists,  "  that  about  eight  days 
after  these  words,  Jesus  took  Peter 
and  James  and  John,  and  leadeth 
them  up  into  a  high  mountain  apart 
by  themselves  to  pray. ' '  This  must 
have  been  after  a  long  day's  travel, 
for  the  three  Apostles  were  ' '  heavy 
with  sleep."  They  prayed  awhile, 
perhaps  reciting  together  the  divine 
poetry  of  the  Psalms,  or  commun- 
ing with  God  in  silence — and  then 
they  fell  asleep.  How  Jesus  prayed 
meantime,  and  what  happened  to 
Him,  is  thus  told  in  the  sacred  nar- 
rative :  ' '  And  whilst  He  prayed  He 
was  transfigured  before  them ;  and 
His  face  did  shine  as  the  sun,  and 
His  garments  became  shining  and 
exceeding  white  as  snow."  It  was 
as  if  the  beams  of  light  from  above 
had  become  servants  of  His  prayer 
and  made  the  bodily  form  of  Jesus 
as  brilliant  as  His  soul :  '  *  And 
[awakening  out  of  their  sleep]  they 
saw  His  glory,  and  they  beheld  two 
men  talking  with  Him.  And  they 
were  Moses  and  Elias  appearing  in 
majesty."  What  was  their  conversation  with  Jesus? 
The  same  sad  topic  of  the  Cross.  The  brightness  of 


"  HE  WAS  TRANSFIGURED  BEFORE  THEM." 

And  it  came  to  pass  about  eight  days 
after  these  words,  that  he  took  Peter  and 
James  and  John,  and  leadeth  them  up  into 
a  high  mountain  apart  by  themselves,  to 
pray.  And  whilst  he  prayed  he  was  trans- 
figured before  them  ;  and  his  face  did  shine 
as  the  sun,  and  his  garments  became  shining 
and  exceeding  white  as  snow,  so  as  no  fuller 
on  earth  can  make  white.  And  behold 
two  men  were  talking  with  him.  And  they 
were  Moses  and  Elias,  appearing  in 
majesty,  and  they  spoke  of  his  decease 
that  he  should  accomplish  in  Jerusalem. 
But  Peter,  and  they  that  were  with  him, 
were  heavy  with  sleep.  And  waking,  they 
saw  his  glory,  and  the  two  men  that  stood 
with  him.  And  it  came  to  pass  that,  as  they 
were  departing  from  him,  Peter  saith  to 
Jesus  :  Master,  it  is  good  for  us  to  be  here, 
and  let  us  make  three  tabernacles,  one  for 
Thee,  and  one  for  Moses,  and  one  for  Elias, 
not  knowing  what  he  said,  for  they  were 
struck  with  fear.  And  as  he  was  yet  speak- 
ing, behold  a  bright  cloud  overshadowed 
them  ;  and  lo  !  a  voice  out  of  the  cloud,  say- 
ing :  This  is  My  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am 
well  pleased  ;  hear  ye  him.  And  the  dis- 
ciples hearing,  fell  upon  their  face  and 
were  very  much  afraid.  And  Jesus  came 
and  touched  them  and  said  to  them :  Arise 
and  fear  not.  And  they,  lifting  up  their 
eyes,  saw  no  one  but  only  Jesus.  And  as 
they  came  down  from  the  mountain,  he 
charged  them  not  to  tell  any  man  what 
they  had  seen  till  the  Son  of  Man  shall 
be  risen  again  from  the  dead.  And  they 
held  their  peace,  and  told  no  man  in  those 
days  any  of  these  things  which  they 
had  seen.  And  they  kept  the  word  to 
themselves,  questioning  together  what  that 
should  mean  :  When  he  shall  be  risen  from 
the  dead.  And  his  disciples  asked  him, 
saying  :  Why  then  do  the  Scribes  say  that 
Elias  must  come  first  ?  But  he  answering 
said  to  them  :  Elias  indeed  shall  come  and 
restore  all  things.  But  I  say  to  you,  that 
Elias  is  already  come,  and  they  knew  him 
not,  but  have  done  unto  him  whatsoever 
they  would.  So  also  the  Son  of  Man  shall 
suffer  from  them,  and  be  despised.  Then 
the  disciples  understood  that  he  had  spoken 
to  them  of  John  the  Baptist. 


366 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Thabor  is  one  with  the  awful  light  of  Calvary:  "And 
they  spoke  of  His  decease  that  He  should  accom- 
plish in  Jerusalem."  The  effect  of  this  great  vision 
on  Peter,  James,  and  John  was  for  a  time  stupefying, 
and  the  subsequent  impression  was  the  deepest 
reverence  for  Jesus.  Not  only  did  they  see  their 
Master  wonderfully  dignified  by  this  heavenly  favor, 
but  they  saw  Him  joined  in  familiar  company  and 
converse  with  the  greatest  personages  of  the  old  law. 
If  the  testimony  of  John  the  Baptist  had  been  a  help 
to  Jesus,  much  rather  was  this  sponsorship  of  the 
"  And  his  garments  be-  most  venerable  leaders  of  the  people  of  God.  But 
came  white  as  snow."  how  much  did  they  overhear  of  the  colloquy  on  the 
Saviour's  death?  Enough,  we  may  suppose,  to  fur- 
nish the  Gospel  narrative  with  its  brief  mention  of 
that  topic  of  discourse.  Death,  indeed — so  they  must 
have  thought — could  have  little  power  over  Him 
whose  human  nature  they  now  beheld  resplendent 
with  the  brightness  of  the  Deity  which  dwelt  within 
it,  and  responsive  to  the  salutation  of  the  Immortal 
Father  from  above. 

Peter  found  his  voice  at  last.  As  the  tones  of  the 
two  holy  Patriarchs  ceased  and  their  bright  forms 
began  to  fade  away,  Peter  longed  for  some  permanent 
reminder  of  their  visit :  his  confused  and  dazzled  mind 
reverted  to  the  tabernacle  in  the  desert  and  the  Ark 
of  the  ancient  Covenant.  Was  not  this  new  covenant 
worthy  of  like  honor  ?  So  he  called  out,  but  with  a 
timid  voice:  "Master,  it  is  good  for  us  to  be  here, 
and  let  us  make  three  tabernacles,  one  for  Thee,  and 
one  for  Moses,  and  one  for  Klias,  not  knowing  what 
he  said,  for  they  were  struck  with  fear."  Peter  would 
give  the  Transfiguration  an  enduring  memorial;  he 
would  set  up  a  shrine  before  whose  splendor  the  Temple 
itself  would  pale  into  insignificance.  And  in  truth  the 


THE  TRANSFIGURATION.  367 

tables  of  the  law  were  not  so  precious  as  the  words 
of  loving  loyalty  uttered  here  by  the  two  representa- 
tives of  the  law  and  the  prophets,  "  as  they  spoke  of 
His  decease  that  He  should  accomplish  in  Jerusalem." 
And  the  words  which  God  spoke  to  His  people  in  the 
wilderness,  what  were  they  but  a  dim  prophecy  of 
the  divine  message  now  spoken  from  the  luminous 
cloud  which  gathered  above  them  :  '  *  Behold  a  bright 
cloud  overshadowed  them ;  and  lo !  a  voice  out  of  the 
cloud,  saying  :  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I 
am  well  pleased;  hear  ye  Him."  But  Peter's  prayer 
was  not  to  be  granted,  though  in  his  heart  and  in 
that  of  every  follower  of  Christ  the  joy  of  the  Mount 
of  Transfiguration  was  to  be  prophetical  of  the  greater 
joy  of  the  Mount  of  Crucifixion. 

For  the   whole  purpose   of  this   vision  and   of  this 
voice   from   on  high  was  to   strengthen  the  Apostles' 
faith  in  the  promises  of  a  Master  doomed  to  be  cruci- 
fied.    For  although  Moses,  as  the  Rabbis  taught,  had 
died    "from  the  kiss  of  God,"  yet  he  now  adored  the 
crucified  Jesus  as  his  Master,  and  he  adored  His  pain- 
ful death  as  the  holiest  and  highest  form  of  departure. 
So,  too,    Elias    discoursed    in    holy  gratulation    with 
Jesus  about  His  ' '  decease  that  He  should  accomplish 
at  Jerusalem,"  though  he  himself  had  been  carried 
into  the  sky  in  a  fiery  chariot.     The  death 
of  Jesus  was  foreshadowed  by  a  bright  cloud 
and   a  voice  from  heaven,  and  the  appari- 
tion of  the   greatest  men   of  old,    and   the 
glorious  transfiguration  of  His  mortal  body, 
though  it  was  the  death  of  the  Cross,  pain- 
ful to   the   last   degree,     disgraceful,    com- 
passed by    traitors    and    apostates  and   in- 
flicted by  murderers   and  tyrants:    it  was       „  Master,  it  is  good  for  us  to  be 
tne  happiest  and  most  glorious  of  deaths  here." 


36S  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

because  it   was  a  death  of  love  and  of  atonement  for 
sin. 

"And  Jesus  came  and  touched  them,  and  said  to 
them  :  Arise  and  fear  not.  And  they,  lifting  up  their 
eyes,  saw  no  one  but  only  Jesus."  This  was  the 
end  of  the  vision.  As  far  as  its  immediate  effects 
went,  it  was  intended  exclusively  for  these  Apostles. 
Therefore  as  their  spirits  grew  calmer  with  His  gentle 
presence,  Jesus,  discoursing  about  His  future  resurrec- 
tion from  death  and  His  permanent  transfiguration  into 
His  spiritualized  body,  cautioned  them  not  to  tell  of 
this  vision  till  His  resurrection  had  made  the  whole 
world  the  repository  of  His  secret;  though  we  can 
hardly  believe  that  He  meant  that  their  fellow- Apostles 
should  not  know  it.  But  they  were  dazed  and  puzzled, 
and  although  they  ' '  kept  the  word  to  themselves, 
they  questioned  together  what  that  should  meal1" » 
When  He  shall  be  risen  from  the  dead  ?  "  They  asked 
Him  also  about  the  belief  in  the  coming  of  Elias  before 
His  own  full  triumph ;  but  He  recalled  His  former 
teaching,  that  Elias  had  already  come  in  the  person 
of  John  the  Baptist ;  arid  as  God's  enemies  had  treated 
the  Baptist  so  would  they  treat  the  Messias.  And  it 
was  thus  that  they  passed  the  night  together  upon 
the  mountain. 


"  They  were  struck  with  fear." 


THE  LUNA  TIC  BOY. 

CHAPTER 

THE    LUNATIC    BOY. 

Matt.  xvii.  14-20  ;    Mark  ix.  13-28 ; 

Luke  ix.  17-44.. 


«1 

jHE  following  day,  as  Jesus  came  down 
with  Peter,  James,  and  John  to  join  the 
rest  of  the  disciples,  Ht  found  them  sur- 
rounded by  a  great  multitude  of  people, 
and  a  hot  dispute  going  on  between  them 
and  certain  Scribes.  Whether  it  was 
impatience  at  His  long  absence  during 
the  transfiguration,  or  that  His  dis- 
ciples had  been  threatening  the  people  with  His 
anger,  we  know  not ;  we  merely  know  ' '  that  all 
the  people  seeing  Jesus  were  astonished  and  struck 
with  fear,  and  running  they  saluted  Him,  and  He 
asked  them:  What  do  you  question  among  you?" 
The  trouble  was  the  failure  of  the  disciples  to  deliver 
a  boy  from  the  power  of  the  devil  who  had  crazed  him, 
and  the  consequent  scoffs  and  jeers  of  the  Scribes. 
"  And  behold  a  man  among  the  crowd,  falling  down 
on  his  knees  before  Him,  cried  out  saying :  Master,  I 
beseech  Thee  look  upon  my  son,  for  he  is  my  only 
one.  Lord  have  pity  upon  my  son,  for  he  is  a 
lunatic."  The  unhappy  father  then  told  his  sad 
story:  "For  he  falleth  often  into  the  fire,  and  often 
into  the  water,  and  lo !  a  dumb  spirit  seizeth  him, 
and  teareth  him.  And  I  desired  Thy  disciples  to 
cast  him  out,  and  they  could  not." 

Here,  then,  was  the  difficulty  ;  the  Apostles  of  Jesus 
were  not  equal,  as  yet,  to  their  vocation,  nor  were  the 
people  ready  to  place  faith  in  them :  hence  the  victory  of 
the  Scribes,  their  mocking  laughter,  their  scorn  and 
disdain.  "Then  Jesus  answered  and  said  :  O  unbe- 


370  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

lieving  and  perverse  generation,  how 
long  shall  I  be  with  you  ?  How  long 
shall  I  suffer  you  ?  ' '  One  of  the  hard- 
est trials  of  our  Saviour  was  the  com- 
pany of  His  dull  followers — must  it 
not  have  been  now  a  yet  greater  pain 
than  usual,  since  He  was  fresh  from 
the  company  of  Moses  and  Elias  ? 
1 '  And  Jesus  asked  his  father,  How 
long  a  time  is  it  since  this  hath  hap- 
pened him  ?  But  he  said  :  From  his 
infancy.  But  if  Thou  canst  do  any- 
thing, help  us,  having  compassion 
on  us."  There  was  an  accent  of 
doubt  in  this  answer  making  discord 
in  the  mind  of  our  Saviour:  "If 
Thou  canst  do  anything."  But  the 
lack  of  faith  here  was  palliated  by 
the  failure  of  the  disciples  in  the 
case  and  by  the  scoffs  of  the  Scribes. 
The  question  and  answer  following 
are  noble  examples  of  kindly  treat- 
ment of  a  perplexed  soul  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  honest  doubt  on  the 
other.  Our  Saviour  took  up  the 
doubting  word  :  "If  Thou  canst, ' ' 
and  gave  it  back  with  double  force  : 
"  And  Jesus  saith  to  them:  If  thou 
canst  believe,  all  things  are  possible 
to  him  that  believeth.  And  immedi- 
ately the  father  of  the  boy,  crying 
out  with  tears,  said  :  I  do  believe, 
Lord,  help  my  unbelief."  Many  a 
worthy  soul  can  make  no  other  act  of 
faith.  It  is  not  perfect,  but  it  is  enough  to  begin  with. 


"I    DO    BELIEVE,    LORD,    HELP    MY    UNBE- 
LIEF." 

And  behold  a  man  among  the  crowd, 
falling  down  on  his  knees  before  him,  cried 
out,  saying:  Master,  I  beseech  thee  look 
upon  my  son,  because  he  is  my  only  one  ; 
Lord,  have  pity  upon  my  son,  for  he  is  a 
lunatic,  and  suffereth  much  ;  for  he  falleth 
often  into  the  fire,  and  often  into  the 
water,  and  lo  !  a  dumb  spirit  seizeth  him, 
and  he  suddenly  crieth  out,  and  he  throweth 
him  down,  and  teareth  him,  so  that  he  foam- 
eth  ;  and  bruising  him,  he  hardly  departeth 
from  him.  And  I  desired  thy  disciples  to 
cast  him  out,  and  they  could"  not.  Then 
Jesus  answered  and  said  :  O  unbelieving 
and  perverse  generation,  how  long  shall  I 
be  with  you  ?  How  long  shall  I  suffer 
you?  Bring  him  unto  me.  And  they 
brought  him.  And  as  he  was  coming  to 
him,  and  when  he  had  seen  him.  immedi- 
ately the  spirit  troubled  him,  and  being 
thrown  down  upon  the  ground,  he  rolled 
about  foaming.  And  he  asked  his  father  : 
How  long  time  is  it  since  this  hath  hap- 
pened unto  him  ?  But  he  said  :  From  his 
infancy.  And  oftentimes  hath  he  cast  him 
into  the  fire  and  into  waters  to  destroy 
him ;  but  if  thou  canst  do  anything,  help 
us,  having  compassion  on  us.  And  Jesus 
saith  to  him  :  If  thou  canst  believe,  all 
things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth. 
And  immediately  the  father  of  the  boy,  cry- 
ing out  with  tears,  said  :  I  do  believe,  Lord, 
help  my  unbelief.  And  when  Jesus  saw 
the  multitude  running  together,  he  threat- 
ened the  unclean  spirit,  saying  to  him  : 
Deaf  and  dumb  spirit,  I  command  thee,  go 
out  of  him  and  enter  not  any  more  into 
him.  And  crying  out  and  greatly  tearing 
him,  he  went  out  of  him,  and  he  became 
as  dead,  so  that  many  said,  He  is  dead. 
But  Jesus  taking  him  by  the  hand  lifted  him 
up,  and  restored  him  to  his  father  ;  and  the 
child  was  cured  from  that  hour.  And  when 
he  was  come  into  the  house,  then  came 
the  disciples  to  Jesus  secretly  and  said  : 
Why  could  not  we  cast  him  out  ?  Jesus 
said  to  them  :  Because  of  your  unbelief. 
Foramen  I  say  to  you,  if  you  have  faith  as 
a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  you  shall  say  to 
this  mountain  :  Remove  from  hence  hither, 
and  it  shall  remove,  and  nothing  shall  be 
impossible  to  you.  And  he  said  to  them  : 
This  kind  can  go  out  by  nothing  but  by 
prayer  and  fasting.  And  all  were  astonish- 
ed at  the  mighty  power  of  God. 


THE  L  UNA  TIC  BO  Y.  371 

Meantime  the  crowd  was  breathless  with  expec- 
tancy, and  crowded  and  crushed  towards  the  Master 
as  He  stood  near  the  weeping  father,  who  was  en- 
deavoring to  hold  down  his  maniac  child.  Jesus 
waited  till  the  multitude  could  fairly  see  and  hear 
what  He  would  do.  Then  His  voice,  imperious  and 
threatening,  was  heard:  "  Deaf  and  dumb  spirit,  I 
command  thee,  go  out  of  him,  and  enter  not  any  more 
into  him.  And  crying  out  and  greatly  tearing  him, 
he  went  out  of  him,  and  he  became  as  dead,  so  that 
many  said,  He  is  dead.  But  Jesus  taking  him  by  the 
hand  lifted  him  up,  and  restored  him  to  his  father, 
and  the  child  was  cured  from  that  hour." 

And  now  Jesus,  having  overcome  both  the  demon 
and  the  Scribes,  had  to  reckon  with  His  own  disciples. 
Their  failure  was  made  the  more  notorious  by  His  easy 
success.  The  disciples  said  to  Jesus  secretly  :  "  Why 
could  not  we  cast  him  out  ?  Jesus  said  to  them  :  Be- 
cause of  your  unbelief.  For  Amen  I  say  to  you,  if 
you  have  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  you  shall 
say  to  this  mountain,  Remove  from  hence  hither,  and 
it  shall  remove,  and  nothing  shall  be  impossible  to 
you."  The  lesson  is  simple.  Faith  and  power  are 
in  Christ's  Kingdom.  But  how  obtain  this  faith  and 
power?  Is  it  by  merely  putting  additional  pressure 
upon  one's  reasonable  adherence  to  God  and  His 
teaching  ?  The  answer  of  Jesus  to  this  implied  ques- 
tion (perhaps  it  was  even  spoken  among  the  disciples) 
shows  the  practical  side  of  faith,  even  miraculous 
faith  :  "And  He  said  to  them,  this  kind  [of  demon] 
can  go  out  by  nothing  but  by  prayer  and  fasting." 
Let  a  man  with  but  a  little  grain  of  faith  unite  him- 
self with  God  in  prayer,  and  conquer  his  bodily  ap- 
petites by  fasting,  and  he  can  then  conquer  devils  and 
remove  mountains. 


372  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER   XLVIII. 

THE  PASSION  AGAIN  FORETOLD. — JESUS  AND  THE 
PAYMENT  OP  THE  TAX. — THE  DISPUTE  ABOUT 
PRECEDENCE. 

Matt.  xvii.  21—26,  and  xviii.  1-5  ;  Mark  ix.  29-4.0  ; 
Luke  ix.  44-50. 

11  AND  departing  from  thence  they  passed  through 
Galilee  and  He  would  not  that  any  man  should  know 
it :  for  He  would  not  walk  in  Judea  because  the  Jews 
sought  to  kill  Him."  They  were  tarrying,  it  would 
seem,  apart  from  the  common  route,  withdrawn  from 
general  contact  with  the  people,  when  Jesus  repeated 
to  the  Apostles  His  prediction  of  His  death  and  resur- 
rection. "And  when  they  abode  together  in  Galilee, 
Jesus  said  to  them  :  The  Son  of  Man  shall  be  be- 
trayed into  the  hands  of  men,  and  the}*  shall  kill 
Him,  and  the  third  day  He  shall  rise  again.  But 
they  understood  not  this  word,  and  it  was  hid  from 
them,  so  that  they  perceived  it  not."  St.  Matthew 
adds  that  "they  were  troubled  exceedingly  concerning 
this  word";  and  yet  they  were  afraid  to  ask  for 
further  explanation.  They  wished  to  take  it  figura- 
tively, while  it  was  plain  fact  and  was  meant  to  be 
taken  as  such.  We  shall  see  that  even  to  the  very 
end  they  hoped,  nay  they  believed,  that  it  was  im- 
possible that  this  all-powerful  wonder-worker  would 
allow  Himself  to  be  put  to  death. 

"  And  when  they  were  come  to  Capharnaum,  they 
that  received  the  didrachmas  came  to  Peter  and  said 
to  him :  Doth  not  your  Master  pay  the  didrachma  ? 
He  said:  Yes."  This  was  either  the  tax  of  the 
Tetrarch,  Herod-Antipas,  or,  more  probably,  the  an- 
nual contribution  fixed  by  the  law  of  Moses  for  the 


JESC/S  AND  THE  PA  YMENT  OF  THE  TAX. 


373 


support  of  the  Temple.  Peter  entered  the  house  to  get 
the  money  (about  thirty  cents  of  our  standard),  but  was 
anticipated  by  the  Master:  "And  when  he  was  come 
into  the  house,  Jesus  prevented  him,  saying  :  What  is 
thy  opinion,  Simon ;  the  kings  of  the  earth,  of  whom 
do  they  receive  tribute  or  custom  ?  of  their  own  chil- 
dren or  of  strangers  ?  And  he  said  :  Of  strangers. 
Jesus  said  to  him  :  Then  the  chil- 
dren are  free."  There  was  no 
power  on  earth  which  could  exact 
tribute  from  Jesus,  or  which  was  not 
bound  to  pay  Him  tribute.  He  was 
greater  than  the  Temple,  He  was 
Lord  of  the  Herods  and  the  Caesars. 
But  Jesus  did  not  come  on  earth  to 
stand  upon  such  rights  as  these, 
but  to  save  men's  souls.  Meantime 
He  had  trouble  enough  on  His  hands 
without  adding  a  dispute  with  tax- 
gatherers.  And,  finally,  to  pay 


"GIVE    IT     TO     THEM     FOR    ME     AND     FOR 
THEE." 

And  when  they  were  come  to  Caphar- 
naum,  they  that  received  the  didrachmas 
came  to  Peter  and  said  to  him  :  Doth  not 
your  Master  pay  thedidrachma  ?  He  said  : 
Yes.  And  when  he  was  come  into  the 
house,  Jesus  prevented  him,  saying:  What 
is  thy  opinion,  Simon  ?  The  kings  of  the 
earth,  of  whom  do  they  receive  tribute  or 
custom  ?  of  their  own  children  or  of 
strangers  ?  And  he  said  :  Of  strangers. 
Jesus  said  to  him  :  Then  the  children  are 
free.  But  that  we  may  not  scandalize 
them,  go  to  the  sea,  and  cast  in  a  hook, 
and  that  fish  which  shall  first  come  up, 
take,  and  when  thou  hast  opened  its 
mouth,  thou  shalt  find  a  stater  ;  take  that, 
and  give  it  to  them  for  me  and  for  thee. 


tribute  by  working  a  miracle  was  to  gather  tribute  in- 
stead of  paying  it.  Hence  He  not  only  avoided  giving 
scandal  to  weak  souls,  but  edified  them  by  teaching 
His  beautiful  union  with  men  as  members  of  the  church 
and  of  the  state  in  the  payment  of  their  share  for  the 
public  support.  Jesus  said  to  Peter:  "  But  that  we 
may  not  scandalize  them,  go  to  the  sea  and  cast  in  a 
hook,  and  that  fish  which  shall  first  come  up,  take, 
and  when  thou  hast  opened  its  mouth,  thou  shalt 
find  a  stater ;  take  that,  and  give  it  to  them  for  Me 
and  for  thee."  We  may  notice  here  one  of  the  many 
cases  in  which  the  Saviour  distinguished  Peter  from 
his  brother  Apostles. 

It  shows  the  tender  solicitude  of  our  Saviour,  that 
He  was  constantly  reading  the  thoughts  of  his 


374 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


ties,  in  their  faces,  or  in  their  very  silence.  After 
the  incident  of  the  didrachma  tax  He  perceived  that 
something  was  the  matter.  He  suspected  that  they  had 
been  disputing  hotly.  He  said  :  ' '  What  did  you 
treat  of  in  the  way?  But  they  held  their  peace,  for  in 
the  way  they  had  disputed  among  themselves  which 
of  them  should  be  greater."  Restiveness  under  His 
constant  preference  for  Peter  may  have  caused  this 
dispute.  It  therefore  became  necessary  to  show  that 
this  dignity  was  official  and  concerned  authority.  He 
would  plainly  indicate  that  in  bestowing  office  He 
need  not  always  follow  the  perfection  of  personal 
virtue.  And  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Peter,  though  the 
highest  in  the  Apostolic  order,  was  not  the  "  disciple 
whom  Jesus  loved"  by  preference. 
Meantime  personal  humility  was  to 
be  cultivated  by  all,  whether  in  au- 
thority or  in  subjection  to  authority. 
The  bearer  of  office  should  be  per- 
sonally as  humble  as  he  is  official- 
ly exalted,  otherwise  he  is  as  per- 
sonally unworthy  as  he  is  officially 
favored.  But  let  us  admire  the 
kindly  method  our  Saviour  took  to 
illustrate  this.  "And  calling  unto 
Him  a  little  child,  He  set  him  in  the 
midst  of  them,  whom  when  He  had 
embraced,  He  saith  to  them :  Amen 


"WHO    IS    GREATER   IN    THE   KINGDOM    OF 
HEAVEN." 

And  when  they  were  in  the  house,  he 
asked  them:  What  did  you  treat  of  in 
the  way  ?  But  they  held  their  peace,  for 
in  the  way  they  had  disputed  among  them- 
selves which  of  them  should  be  greater. 
But  Jesus,  seeing  the  thoughts  of  their 
hearts,  sitting  down,  he  called  the  twelve, 
and  said  to  them  :  If  any  man  desire  to 
be  first,  he  shall  be  the  last  of  all  and  the 
minister  of  all.  And  Jesus,  calling  unto 
him  a  little  child,  set  him  in  the  midst  of 
them  ;  whom  when  he  had  embraced,  he 
saith  to  them  :  Amen  I  say  to  you,  unless 
you  be  converted,  and  become  as  little 
children,  you  shall  not  enter  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Whosoever,  there- 
fore, shall  humble  himself  as  this  little 
child,  he  is  the  greater  in  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven. 


I  say  to  you,  unless  you  be  converted,  and  become  as 
little  children,  you  shall  not  enter  into  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven."  As  if  to  say,  Why  dispute  about  who 
shall  be  first  in  the  kingdom  before  you  have  found 
out  how  to  enter  it  ?  A  life  as  blameless  as  this  inno- 
cent child's  is  the  key.  Simplicity,  frankness,  love, 
trustfulness,  content — these  childlike  virtues  are  the 


DISP UTE  ABOUT  PRECEDENCE.  375 

great  qualities  for  citizenship  in  My  Kingdom.  Add- 
ed to  these  qualities  are  those  that  make  men  leaders, 
such  as  wisdom  and  prudence  and  fortitude.  But  it  is 
childlike  confidence  in  God,  and  a  child's  trustful  love 
of  parents  and  brothers  and  sisters  and  friends  and 
companions :  it  is  this  type  of  character  that  is  the 
Christian  one,  whether  for  subject  or  for  ruler  in  the 
kingdom.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  not  a  barrack 
of  soldiers  but  a  household  of  loving  parents  and 
children. 

So  Jesus  taught.  As  to  authority  itself,  it  has  its 
representatives  in  the  Kingdom  of  God  whose  prero- 
gatives are  divine.  Jesus  had  said  to  His  Apostles 
on  a  previous  occasion  that  whosoever  received  them 
received  Him.  That  was  a  right  attached  to  their 
office,  and  it  armed  them  \\ith  a  penalty  wherewith  to 
punish  disobedience.  He  now — and  in  words  very 
similar — enforces  that  other  right  which  empowers 
them  to  stand  for  God,  and  not  them  only  but  all 
others,  even  the  simple  and  the  lowly  and  the  igno- 
rant, all  whose  personal  virtue  makes  them  teachers 
by  the  strong  right  of  good  example,  true  counsel  or 
zealous  reproof :  "  And  he  that  shall  receive  one  such 
little  child  in  My  name,  receiveth  Me.  And  whoso- 
ever shall  receive  Me,  receiveth  not  Me,  but  Him 
that  sent  Me." 

Our  Saviour's  comparison  of  official  dignity  with 
personal  virtue,  even  that  of  childlike  innocence  and 
simplicity,  bears  with  it  a  useful  lesson,  especially  to 
such  as  would  .make  official  power  the  absorbent  of  all 
other  power  in  religion.  The  ideal  condition  is  that 
in  which  authority  is  vested  in  persons  distinguished 
by  private  virtue  ;  these  bring  to  bear  in  the  loving 
exercise  of  their  office  the  compulsion  of  personal  holi- 
ness. We  know  that  even  in  dealing  with  sinners 


376 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


authority  should  call  them  to  repen- 
tance rather  by  the  free  motives  of 
love  than  by  the  threats  of  punish- 
ment, reserving  the  pressure  of  the 
law  for  the  more  obstinate,  for  whom 
alone  it  is  intended  and  is  necessary. 
And  how  can  love  be  made  compul- 
sory except  by  one  who  loves  and  is 
beloved?  It  is  the  will  of  Christ, 
says  St.  Francis  de  Sales,  that  we 
should  love  obedience  more  than  we 
fear  disobedience. 

Since  the  only  unitive  virtue  is 
love,  therefore  the  original,  the  per- 
petual, the  all  powerful,  the  exclu- 
sive means  of  bringing  men  into 
friendship  with  God  and  keeping 
them  there  must  be  love :  how  then 
can  one  who  does  not  love  hope  to 
save  souls  ?  If  we  yield  a  place  to 
fear,  it  must  be  an  introductory  one, 
the  minor  orders  of  that  divine  priest- 
hood and  hierarchy  of  persuasion 
and  conversion  and  perseverance 
which  is  conferred  upon  sanctified 
souls.  The  official  hierarchy  of  the 
Church's  ministry  was  founded  by 
Christ  to  arm  this  unofficial  hierarchy  of  personal  vir- 
tue with  a  divine  authority  in  the  external  order.  By 
sacraments  and  dogmas,  indeed,  the  Church  is  con- 
stituted ;  but  sacraments  and  dogmas  generate  prayer 
and  patience  and  zeal  and  every  other  form  of  holy 
love,  which  in  turn  reacts  upon  them  and  makes  them 
more  fruitful.  Happy  is  the  family,  and  the  parish,  and 
the  religious  community,  and  the  diocese  in  which 


"  Unless  you  become  as  little  children,  you 
shall  not  enter  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven." 


DISPUTE  ABOUT  PRECEDENCE.  377 

this  rule  of  Christ    prevails,    and    obedience   and  love 
are  so  blended  as  to  be  indistinguishably  one. 

Jesus  enforced  a  similar  principle  on  occasion  of  a 
complaint  made  by  St.  John.  When  our  Saviour  had 
said,  "  He  that  receiveth  Me  receiveth  Him  that  sent 
Me,"  John  answered  Him  saying,  "  Master,  we  saw 
one  casting  out  devils  in  Thy  name,  who  followeth 
not  with  us,  and  we  forbade  him.  But  Jesus  said  : 
Do  not  forbid  him.  For  there  is  no  man  that  doth  a 
miracle  in  My  name  and  can  soon  speak  ill  of  Me." 
The  man  who  was  casting  out  devils  was  probably 
doing  so  by  the  regular  Rabbinical  exorcism,  adding, 
however,  the  invocation  of  the  name  of  Jesus,  in  whose 
power  he  believed  ;  he  was  evidently  a  friend  of  Jesus, 
for  God  worked  miracles  by  Him.  John's  complaint 
was  therefore  founded  on  rash  judgment,  and  voiced 
rather  the  jealousy  of  an  official  than  the  charity  and 
zeal  of  an  Apostle.  Jesus  would  say,  L,et  good  men 
do  good  ;  if  they  are  not  plainly  in  rebellion  against 
My  authority  they  are  to  be  presumed  as  subject  to 
it;  "For,"  He  added,  "he  that  is  not  against  you  is 
for  you."  This,  of  course,  applies  only  in  favor  of  the 
liberty  of  action  of  men  of  good  will,  for  on  another 
occasion,  and  referring  to  evil-minded  men,  our  Saviour 
says  the  very  contrary. 


378  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER  XLIX. 

THE     SIN     OF     SCANDAL,. — THE   GUARDIAN    ANGERS. — 
THE   GOOD   SHEPHERD   AND   THE   I<OST  SHEEP. 

Matt,  xviii.  6-14;  Mark  ix.  41-49  ;  Luke  xvii.  i,  2. 

IvDOM  can  one  sin  totally  alone  and 
wholly  without  hurt  to  his  neighbor.  The 
most  hidden  sin  is  at  least  sure  to  dry  up 
some  fountain  of  goodness  that  once  flow- 
ed from  the  sinner's  heart  upon  his  kin- 
dred or  other  associates.  The  sinner  may 
begin  in  secret,  but  in  time  he  will  be- 
come  a  cause  of  scandal.  He  is  a  parent 
and  infects  his  children  by  bad  example ; 
he  is  a  master  and  forces  vice  upon  his  servants  ;  he  is 
a  ruler  and  corrupts  a  whole  nation ;  he  is  a  journalist 
and  destroys  his  tens  of  thousands ;  he  is,  alas !  a 
fallen  priest  and  "preaches  his  sin  like  Sodom." 

Against  the  sin  of  scandal,  the  supreme  guilt  of 
causing  sin  by  example,  command,  suggestion,  ridi- 
cule, false  kindness,  false  severity,  giving  the  means  of 
sin,  or  selling  them — against  all  forms  of  scandal  Jesus 
Christ  thunders  forth  His  anathema.  Especially  does 
He  arraign  those  who  cause  children  and  youth  to  sin, 
among  whom  wicked  fathers  and  mothers  are  the 
worst;  they  are  indeed  the  worst  sinners  in  the 
world. 

About  all  who  give  scandal  Jesus  says  that  the 
sea  is  not  too  deep  to  drown  them,  nor  a  mill-stone  too 
heavy  to  sink  them  to  the  bottom  and  keep  them  there 
for  ever.  Hell  is  deeper  than  the  sea  and  a  lost  soul  is 
a  heavier  weight  around  the  sinner's  neck  than  a  mill- 
*  stone.  The  brief  but  terrible  discourse  of  Jesus  upon 
scandal,  or  sin  causing  sin,  begins  with  the  slaughter 


379 


"THEIR    WORM    DIETH    NOT." 

He  that  shall  scandalize  one  of  these 
little  ones  that  believe  in  me,  it  were 
better  for  him  that  a  mill-stone  should  be 
hanged  about  his  neck  and  that  he  should 
be  drowned  in  the  depth  of  the  sea.  Woe 
to  the  world  because  of  scandals.  For  it 
must  needs  be  that  scandals  come,  never- 
theless woe  to  that  man  by  whom  scandal 
cometh.  If  thy  hand  scandalize  thee,  cut 
it  off;  it  is  better  for  thee  to  enter  into 
life  maimed,  than  having  two  hands  to  go 
into  hell,  into  unquenchable  fire,  where 
their  worm  dieth  not,  and  their  fire  is  not 
extinguished.  And  if  thy  foot  scandalize 
thee,  cut  it  off  ;  it  is  better  for  thee  to 
enter  lame  into  life  everlasting,  than  hav- 
ing two  feet  to  be  cast  into  the  hell  of  un- 
quenchable fire  ;  where  their  worm  dieth 
not,  and  their  fire  is  not  extinguished. 
And  if  thy  eye  scandalize  thee,  pluck  it 
out ;  it  is  better  for  thee  with  one  eye  to 
enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  God,  than 
having  two  eyes  to  be  cast  into  the  hell  of 
fire,  where  their  worm  dieth  not,  and  the 
fire  is  not  extinguished. 


THE  SIN  OF  SCANDAL. 

of  the  innocents  by  wicked  or  care- 
less parents  and  others  placed  in  a 
position  to  injure  children:  "And 
He  said  to  His  disciples :  It  is  im- 
possible that  scandals  should  not 
come,  but  woe  to  them  by  whom 
they  come.  He  that  shall  scanda- 
lize one  of  these  little  ones  that  be- 
lieve in  Me,  it  were  better  for  him 
that  a  mill-stone  should  be  hanged 
about  his  neck  and  that  he  should 
be  drowned  in  the  depth  of  the  sea." 
Just  as  you  make  sure  of  drowning 
a  venomous  cur  by  hanging  a  weight 
to  him,  so  does  a  man  make  sure 
of  his  own  eternal  loss  by  causing 
sin  in  others.  And  yet  how  univer- 
sally do  sinners  help  each  other  to  sin  !  Our  Saviour 
laments  this  :  "  Woe  to  the  world  because  of  scandals. 
For  it  must  needs  be  that  scandals  come,  nevertheless 
woe  to  that  man  by  whom  scandal  cometh." 

It  is  as  if  every  sin  were  a  moral  leprosy  so  con- 
tagious as  to  make  heroic  treatment  the  only  mercy 
possible.  Jesus  had  already  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  and  in  nearly  the  same  words,  treated  of  this 
painful  subject  :  "  If  thy  hand  scandalize  thee,  cut  it 
off ;  it  is  better  for  thee  to  enter  into  life  maimed, 
than  having  two  hands  to  go  into  hell,  into  unquench- 
able fire,  where  their  worm  dieth  not  and  their  fire  is 
not  extinguished."  Better,  that  is,  to  lose  one's 
hands  here,  than  to  carry  them  to  hell  as  an  ever- 
lasting reproach  for  the  sins  they  were  made  to  com- 
mit— or  one's  tongue  or  heart  or  eyes.  Many  a  filthy 
whisper  or  provoking  insult  is  hissed  again  in  hell, 
many  a  jovial  invitation  to  the  social  glass  is  mourn- 


380  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

fully  repeated  in  hell,  many  a  footstep  on  the  way  to 
a  foul  assignation  echoes  afterwards  in  hell:  "And 
if  thy  foot  scandalize  thee,  cut  it  off.  And  if  thy  eye 
scandalize  thee,  pluck  it  out ;  it  is  better  for  thee  with 
one  eye  to  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  God,  than  hav- 
ing two  eyes  to  be  cast  into  the  hell  of  fire,  where 
their  worm  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  is  not  extinguished." 
These  are  among  the  most  terrible  words  ever  spoken, 
and  they  are  spoken  by  the  gentlest  heart  that  ever 
throbbed  with  love.  Yet  this  severity  is  not  exces- 
sive. All  who  have  tried  saving  souls  from  hell  know 
that  sin  has  the  power  of  gluing  its  votaries  to- 
gether, and  whatever  one  is  dragged  from  the  mass  of 
evil  companionship,  he  can  be  saved  only  by  a  pain- 
ful wrench  from  that  which  has  grown  to  be  as 
precious  to  his  lower  nature  as  a  hand  or  a  foot  to 
the  human  frame. 

Our  Saviour  then  changes,  it  would  .seem,  from 
the  subject  of  bad  example  to  that  of  good  example, 
and  from  the  fire  of  hell  to  the  salt  of  peaceful  and 
beneficent  love  :  ' '  For  every  one  shall  be  salted  with 
fire,  and  every  victim  shall  be  salted  with  salt.  Salt 
is  good  ;  but  if  the  salt  become  unsavory  "  (that  is,  if 
bad  example  takes  the  place  of  goo'd  example)  ' '  where- 
with will  you  season  it  ?  Have  salt  in  you,  and  have 
peace  among  you." 

Before  finally  leaving  the  subject  of  scandal,  Jesus 
discoursed  upon  the  relation  of  the  angels  to  men  as 
their  attorneys  in  His  Father's  court.  Even  the 
pagans  had  some  knowledge  of  them.  Among  the 
fragments  of  revealed  religion  which  survived  the 
general  wreck  in  the  Gentile  world,  was  the  blessed 
truth  that  men  are  guarded  by  celestial  spirits.  To 
the  Jewish  people  these  heavenly  beings  were  well 
known,  for  God  had  always  used  His  angels  as  mes- 


THE  GUARDIAN  ANGELS.  381 

sengers  to  His  people  and  appointed  them  as  their 
protectors.  Jesus,  as  His  disciples  well  knew,  was 
often  in  angelic  company.  It  was  therefore  natural 
that  while  speaking  of  the  sin  of  scandal  He  should 
take  the  Guardian  Angels  into  account,  whom  He  de- 
scribes as  pleading  before  God  the  cause  of  children 
injured  by  bad  example  :  "  See  that  you  despise  not  one 
of  these  little  ones,  for  I  say  to  you  that  their  angels 
in  heaven  always  see  the  face  of  My  Father  who  is  in 
heaven."  This  is  plain  teaching.  Carried  out  in  the 
training  of  children,  it  gives  men  from  the  earliest 
period  of  life  a  sense  of  dignity,  a  sense  of  self- value, 
and  a  sweet  consciousness  of  pure  companionship,  all 
elements  of  very  great  worth  in  the  formation  of  the 
Christian  character. 

Upon  which  Jesus,  as  He  continues,  places  Himself 
at  the  head  of  these  shepherds  of  the  gentle  flock  of 
God.  He  is  our  chief  Angel  Guardian.  And  He  re- 
peats— nor  is  it  for  the  last  time — the  consoling  doc- 
trine that  His  main  purpose  is  not  to  retain  possession 
of  those  who  are  already  saved,  but  to  save  those  who 
are  lost.  "For  the  Son  of  Man  is  come  to  save  that 
which  was  lost.  What  think  you  ?  If  a  man  have  a 
hundred  sheep,  and  one  of  them  should  go  astray,  doth 
he  not  leave  the  ninety-nine  in  the  mountains,  and 
goeth  to  seek  that  which  is  gone  astray  ?  And  if  it 
so  be  that  he  find  it,  Amen,  I  say  to  you  he  rejoiceth 
more  for  that  than  for  the  ninety- nine  that  went  not 
astray.  Even  so  it  is  not  the  will  -of  your  Father 
who  is  in  Heaven  that  one  of  these  little  ones  should 
perish."  How  suggestive  of  love  is  this  beautiful  pic- 
ture of  the  whole  flock  left  to  care  for  itself  that  one 
single  sheep  may  not  perish.  But  suppose  a  case  in 
which  it  is  the  ninety-nine  who  are  lost  and  only  one  is 
safe  at  home?  L,et  us  ask  what  is  the  will  of  Jesus 


m 


382  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Christ  in  our  own  day,  when  in  these  northern  nations 
there  are  many  communities  in  which  not  one  in  five 
hundred  is  in  the  true  fold.  Study  this  teaching  of  our 
Good  Shepherd  and  you  will  appreciate  the  missionary 
vocation  of  the  Church  at  the  present  time. 


CHAPTER  L. 

FRATERNAL  CORRECTION. — "  IF  HE  WII,!,  NOT  HEAR 
THE  CHURCH." — THE  WICKED  SERVANT. 

Matt,  xviii.  15-35;  Luke  xvii.  5,  4. 

ORRECTION  among  brethren  is  always  an  affection- 
JT^    ate  admonition  as  a  first  resort,  and  that  privately ; 
•^£.  .  •    then  comes  the  aid  of   others,  men  who  are  good, 
peaceable,  and  wise.     Finally,  and  only  as  a  last  re- 
sort, the  infliction  of  penalties.     Love  is  indeed  first 
and  last ;  but  in  the  end  it  can  use  authority  and  in- 
flict penalties  with  profit.     Our  Saviour  had  suffered 
from  various  dissensions  among  His  followers,  and  He 
took  occasion  of  His  discourse  on  saving  the  lost  sheep 
to  lay  down,  the  rules  of  brotherly  admonition.     "But 
if  thy  brother  shall  offend  against  thee,  go  and  rebuke 
him   between   thee   and   him  alone.     If  he   shall  hear 
thee,  thou  shalt  gain  thy  brother.     And  if  he  will  not 
hear  thee,  take  with  thee  one  or  two  more,  that  in  the 
mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses  every  word  may  stand. 
And  if  he  will  not   hear  them,  tell  the  Church.     And 
if  he  will   not   hear   the   Church,  let  him  be  to   thee 
as  the  heathen  and  publican."     We  shall  not  mistake 
our  Lord's  words   when   we  say  that   His  meaning  is 
this  :    having  loved  our   obstinate  brother   as  one   of 
the   household,  we  must   love  him  no   less   when   his 
disobedience  has  made   him  an   excommunicate.     We 
know  how   deeply  Jesus   loved   the  poor  heathen  and 


MUST  HEAR  1 HE  CHURCH. 


383 


The  first  duty 


publican ;  it   is  to   them  He  compares  an  incorrigible 
brother  Christian. 

The  Church  is  here  mentioned  by  Christ  for  the 
second  time,  and  in  a  way  to  bestow  the  highest  right 
of  discipline.  He  draws  a  plain  line  between  a  volun- 
tary authority,  that  of  brother  over  brother,  and  the 
organic  right  of  correction  in  the  whole  brotherhood, 
the  Church.  He  follows  this  up  with  a  grant  of 
plenary  power,  the  terms  being  identical  with  a  part 
of  Peter's  charter:  "Amen,  I  say  to  you,  whatsoever 
you  shall  bind  upon  earth  shall  be  bound  also  in 
heaven ;  and  whatsoever  }'ou  shall  loose  upon  earth 
shall  be  loosed  also  in  heaven."  The  Church  is 
the  brotherhood  of  the  Sons  of  God 
and  first  right  of  brothers  is  brother- 
ly love.  When  this  fails  there  is  re- 
sort to  the  authority  of  God  in  His 
Church  to  restore  it.  Power,  ma- 
jesty, dignity,  unity,  every  quality 
that  inspires  respect  and  claims  obe- 
dience is  best  exercised  when  associ- 
ated with  the  ever-deepening  influ- 
ences of  love — loving  exhortation, 
loving  exchange  of  favors,  loving 
patience,  loving  community  of  goods 
spiritual  and  temporal ;  and  some- 
times loving  correction — this  comes 
last  of  all  indeed,  but  is  occasion- 
ally necessary  for  the  restoration  of 
love :  thus  we  have  the  summary  of  our  Saviour's 
grant  of  heavenly  authority  to  His  earthly  household. 

First,  then,  the  private  offer  of  reconciliation,  care- 
fully guarding  against  publicity,  nor  waiting  for  the 
culprit  to  take  the  first  step.  Then,  in  case  of  failure, 
the  kindly  aid  of  others  is  called  in.  Last  of  all  the 


HOW  THOU  SHALT  GAIN  THY  BROTHER. 

If  thy  brother  shall  offend  against  thee, 
go  and  rebuke  him  between  thee  and  him 
alone.  If  he  shall  hear  thee,  thou  shalt 
gain  thy  brother.  And  if  he  will  not  hear 
thee,  take  with  thee  one  or  two  more,  that 
in  the  mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses 
every  word  may  stand.  And  if  he  will  not 
hear  them,  tell  the  Church.  And  if  he 
will  not  hear  the  Church,  let  him  be  to 
thee  as  the  heathen  and  publican.  Amen, 
I  say  to  you,  whatsoever  you  shall  bind 
upon  earth  shall  be  bound  also  in  heaven  ; 
and  whatsoever  you  shall  loose  upon  earth, 
shall  be  loosed  also  in  heaven.  Again  I 
say  to  you,  that  if  two  of  you  shall  consent 
upon  earth  concerning  anything,  whatso- 
ever they  shall  ask  it  shall  be  done  to 
them  by  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven.  For 
where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together, 
in  my  name,  there  ami  in  the  midst  of 
them. 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


strong  arm  of  Church  law: — but  even  after  that  the 
poor  sinner  is  ever  welcome  to  return,  ever  solicited  to 
do  so.  And  it  is  exactly  upon  this  line  that  Christ's 
Church  has  always  inflicted  her  censures.  The  object 
is  to  ' '  gain  the  brother  ' '  even  more  than  to  free  the 
brotherhood  from  his  scandal.  Jesus  adds  common 
prayer,  a  practice  very  pleasing  to  His  Father,  as  an 
incentive  to  brotherly  union  in  the 
divine  household  on  earth.  "  Again 
I  say  to  you,  that  if  two  of  you  shall 
consent  upon  earth  concerning  any- 
thing, whatsoever  they  shall  ask  it 
shall  be  done  to  them  by  My  Father 
who  is  in  Heaven.  For  where  two 
or  three  are  gathered  together  in 
My  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst 
of  them." 

The  reader  knows  how  stern  a 
law  of  penance  for  sin  was  enforced 
among  the  early  Christians.  Every 
heinous  offence  had  its  public  pen- 
alty, its  long,  and  sometimes  years 
long,  punishment,  suffered  openly 
among  the  faithful.  This  discipline 
was  a  vital  necessity  in  those  days, 
when  the  Church  was  surrounded 
by  filthy  paganism.  Yet  let  us  mark 
this  :  that  the  outside  world  did  not 
then  say  of  the  Church,  How  sternly 
these  Christians  enforce  discipline  ; 
but  rather,  How  these  Christians 
love  one  another.  Not  Church  discipline  but  brotherly 
love  was  the  characteristic  trait  of  Christianity  even 
in  its  era  of  strictest  discipline. 

Peter  would   have  our  Saviour  explain  more  fully 


THE  KING  AND  THE  WICKED  SERVANT. 

Therefore  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
likened  to  a  king,  who  would  take  an  ac- 
count of  his  servants.  And  when  he  had 
begun  to  take  the  account,  one  was  brought 
to  him  that  owed  him  ten  thousand  talents. 
And  as  he  had  rot  wherewith  to  pay  it,  his 
lord  commanded  that  he  should  be  sold, 
and  his  wife  and  children,  and  all  that  he 
had,  and  payment  to  be  made.  But  that 
servant  falling  down,  besought  him,  say- 
ing: Have  patience  with  me,  and  I  will 
pay  thee  all.  And  the  lord  of  that  servant 
being  moved  with  pity,  let  him  go  and  for- 
gave him  the  debt.  But  when  that  servant 
was  gone  out,  he  found  one  of  his  fellow- 
servants  that  owed  him  an  hundred  pence  : 
and  laying  hold  of  him,  he  throttled  him, 
saying:  Pay  what  thou  owest.  And  his 
fellow-servant,  falling  down,  besought 
him,  saying  :  Have  patience  with  me,  and 
I  will  pay  thee  all.  And  he  would  not : 
but  went  and  cast  him  into  prison,  till  he 
paid  the  debt.  Now  his  fellow  servants 
seeing  what  was  done,  were  very  much 
grieved,  and  they  came  and  told  their  lord 
all  that  was  done.  Then  his  lord  called 
him:  and  said  to  him:  Thou  wicked  ser- 
vant, I  forgave  thee  all  the  debt,  because 
thou  besoughtest  me  :  Shouldst  not  thou 
then  have  had  compassion  also  on  thy 
fellow-servant,  even  as  1  had  compassion  on 
thee  ?  And  his  lord  being  angry,  deliver- 
ed him  to  the  torturers  until  he  paid  all 
this  debt.  So  also  shall  my  heavenly 
Father  do  to  you,  if  you  forgive  not  every 
one  his  brother  from  your  hearts. 


FAREWELL  TO  GALILEE.  385 

the  duty  of  brotherly  forgiveness:  "  L,ord,  how  often 
shall  my  brother  offend  against  me,  and  I  forgive 
him  ?  till  seven  times  ?  "  Now  the  Jewish  casuists  had 
twisted  some  Scripture  texts  so  as  to  limit  forgive- 
ness to  three  times ;  therefore  Peter  fancied  he  was 
extremely  generous  in  extending  it  to  seven.  But  the 
Master  threw  down  all  limits  to  brotherly  love : 
"Jesus  saith  to  him,  I  say  not  to  thee,  till  seven  times, 
but  till  seventy  times  seven  times."  And  upon  this 
He  gavre  them  the  very  instructive  parable  of  the 
King  and  his  Wicked  Servant.  The  Apostles  could 
easily  see  the  gradation  of  guilt  according  to  Jesus : 
if  the  king  punished  the  common  sins  of  human  malice 
with  slavery,  he  punished  unforgiveness  of  injuries 
with  slavery  and  torture. 

CHAPTER  LI. 

FAREWELL      TO     GALILEE.  — "  WOE     TO     THEE,      CORO- 

ZAIN!  " 
Matt.   xi.  20-24.  ;  Luke  x.  13-15 ;  John  vii.  i-io. 

A  CRISIS  had  been  reached  in  Galilee.  The 
Saviour  had  battled  bravely  with  His  enemies,  and 
He  had  always  conquered.  But  what  He  gained  by 
the  majesty  of  His  manner,  the  sweetness  of  His  re- 
ligious teaching,  the  irresistible  power  of  His  miracles, 
He  to  a  great  extent  lost  by  the  intrigues  of  His 
enemies.  They  were  expecting,  and  determined  to 
expect,  no  other  Kingdom  of  God  but  the  restoration 
of  the  temporal  independence  of  their  race.  Race 
pride  is  a  stubborn  foe,  and  in  this  case  it  was  allied 
to  the  pride  of  self-righteousness.  Though  the  Gali- 
leans as  a  body  were  true  to  Him,  most  of  the 
leaders  of  the  people  were  not.  They  were  set  with 
fanatical  frenzy  upon  their  outward  observances — a 


386 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


"WOE  TO  THEE,   COROZAIN  !" 

Woe  to  thee,  Bethsaida !  for  if  in  Tyre 
and  Sidon  had  been  wrought  the  miracles 
that  have  been  wrought  in  you,  they  had 
long  ago  done  penance  in  sackcloth  and 
ashes.  But  I  say  unto  you,  it  shall  be  more 
tolerable  for  Tyre  and  bidon  in  the  Pay  of 
Judgment  than  for  you.  And  thou,  Ca- 
pharnaum,  which  art  exalted  unto  heaven  ; 
shall  thou  be  exalted  up  to  heaven  ?  thou 
shalt  go  down  even  unto  hell.  For  if  in 
Sodom  had  been  wrought  the  miracles  that 
have  been  wrought  in  thee,  perhaps  it  had 
remained  unto  this  day.  But  I  say  unto 
you  that  it  shall  be  more  tolerable  for  the 
land  of  Sodom  in  the  Day  of  Judgment 
than  for  thee. 


gross   exaggeration   of  the   law   of 
Moses.     Jesus  came  among  the  peo- 
ple and  swept  away  everything  these 
leaders  loved.     His  kingdom  meant 
the  extinction  of  the  Jewish  national 
aspirations,    meant    a   new  law   en- 
tirely superseding   the  Temple   and 
the  whole  law  of  Moses.     He  added 
new  rules  of  conduct  so  gentle  as  to 
dampen  the   warlike  ardor  of  every 
Jewish  soul  that  believed   in   Him. 
With  regard  to  outward  observances, 
He  had  plainly  foretold  Baptism  and  the  Eucharist,  and 
implied  some  others  which  He  would  finally  institute, 
but  these  were  only  outward  signs  communicating  an 
inward  presence,   a  presence  so  spiritual  as  to  wholly 
confuse  and   offend  a  class  of  men  sodden  with  exter- 
najism. 

The  time  was  hot  for  an  outbreak  against  Him  in 
Capharnauni  or  its  neighborhood.  Even  some  of  the 
cousins  of  Jesus  (called  His  brothers)  doubted  of 
Him,  or  at  least  of  His  prudence.  And  so  He  de- 
termined to  go  up  to  Jerusalem  about  the  feast  of 
Tabernacles,  and  there  and  in  that  neighborhood  to 
make  ready  for  His  end.  This  too  was  in  accordance 

with  the  advice  of 
these  near  relatives : 
"  Now  the  Jews' 
feast  of  Tabernacles 
was  at  hand.  And 
His  brethren  said  to 
Him  :  Pass  from 
hence,  and  go  into 
Judea,  that  Thy  dis- 

ANCIENT  DESERT  LIFE  OF  THE  CHILDREN  OF  ISRAEL.  ClpleS      alSO      may     SCC 


FAREWELL  TO  GALILEE. 

Thy  works  which  Thou 
dost.  For  there  is  no 
man  that  doth  anything 
in  secret,  and  he  him- 
self seeketh  to  be  known 
openly.  If  Thou  do 
these  things,  manifest 
Thyself  to  the  world. 
For  neither  did  His 
brethren  believe  in 
Him."  "My  time  is 
not  yet  come,"  replied 
our  Saviour,  and  He 
urged  them  to  greater 
firmness  and  energy  : 


387 


It  was  held  towards  the  end  of  our  month  of  September." 

But    your    time    is    always    ready."     He    declined, 


however,  to  go  to  Jerusalem  in  their  company,  con- 
cealing from  them  the  exact  day  of  His  departure. 
"Go  you  up  to  this  festival-day;  but  I  go  not  up  to 
this  festival-day,  because  My  time  is  not  accomplished. 
But  after  His  brethren  were  gone  up,  then  He  also  went 
up  to  the  feast,  not  openly,  but  as  it  were  in  secret." 

The  feast  of  Tabernacles  was  a  beautiful  memorial 
of  the  ancient  desert  life  of  the  children  of  Israel. 
It  was  held  towards  the  end  of  our  month  of  Septem- 
ber, all  the  harvest  work  being  .over  and  the  people  at 
rest.  It  lasted  a  week,  during  which  the  Jewish 
families  left  their  houses  and  dwelt  in  tents  or  in 
booths  made  of  green  branches,  devoutly  praying  and 
singing  joyful  hymns  and  psalms.  Of  course  its 
most  splendid  celebration  was  in  the  holy  city,  whither 
great  numbers  of  the  country  people  flocked  to 
participate  in  the  solemnities. 

We  have  seen  that  our  Saviour  would  not  allow 
the  eagerness  oi  His  relatives  to  forestall  His  purposes 


388  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

and  thus  precipitate  an  open  conflict.     The  Galileans, 
if  He  went  openly  to  Jerusalem,    might  give  Him   a 
triumph  and  provoke  His  death.     The  Pharisees  and 
Herodians   might  embroil    His   followers  in   a   tumult 
and  involve  them  in  a  general  massacre  by  the  Roman 
soldiers: — the     jealousy    of      Rome 
might  be  aroused.     "  My  time  is  not 
yet  come,"  insisted   the  Master.     It 
was  not  lack  of  courage  but  fulness 
of    wisdom  that   guided  Him.     The 
A  PRIMITIVE  PLOUGH.  same   quality  would    allow  the   dis- 

ciples to  labor  for  Him,  to  spread  the  glad  tidings,  to 
exercise  their  miraculous  gifts.  "  The  world  cannot 
hate  you,"  He  said,  "but  Me  it  hateth,  because  I 
give  testimony  of  it,  that  the  works  thereof  are  evil." 
After  His  relatives  had  gone,  Jesus,  retaining  His 
Apostles  with  Him,  spent  a  few  days  quietly  bidding 
farewell  to  Galilee,  the  country  of  His  childhood  and 
hidden  life  and  the  scene  of  His  chief  activity  since 
His  public  life  began. 

Farewell  now  to  the  blue  waters  and  the  bright 
sky  of  Genesareth.  Many  happy  hours  of  such  plain- 
tive happiness  as  our  Man  of  Sorrows  could  enjoy  had 
He  spent  about  its  shores,  wafted  over  its  waves,  and 
in  the  adjacent  towns,  villages,  and  country  places. 
Farewell  to  it  all,  and  to  that  upright  people  the 
Galileans,  not  always  apt  to  understand  Him,  but 
ever  willing  to  do  so,  ever  frank  and  brave.  Galilee  is 
hereafter  the  most  renowned  of  earth's  dwelling-places, 
for  He  who  wakes  the  soul  of  man  from  death  to 
life  shall  be  called  the  Galilean  ;  and  those  mightiest 
conquerors  of  the  human  mind,  the  Apostles  of  Christ, 
shall  be  known  as  the  Galileans.  How  tenderly  must 
not  Jesus  have  waved  His  farewell  and  spoken  His  last 
adreu,  doubtless  with  tearful  eyes,  as  He  mingled,  He 


FAREWELL  TO  GALILEE. 


389 


and  His  few  companions,  with  the  stream  of  the  later 
pilgrims  going  to  the  Holy  City  for  the  feast  of 
Tabernacles ! 

But  not  alone  in  gentle  leave-taking  was  the  spirit 
of  Jesus  absorbed.  Justice  has  its  rights,  and  our 
Saviour  was  compelled  to  satisfy  justice  in  denouncing 
the  communities  which  had  rejected  Him,  that  Jewish 
Messias  whom  the  very  heathen  would  one  day  receive 
with  loving  welcome  :  ' '  Then  began  He  to  upbraid 
the  cities  wherein  were  done  the  most  of  His  miracles, 
for  that  they  had  not  done  penance."  It  was  their 
love  of  vice — lust  and  drunkenness  and  pride  and  sloth 
— that  had  blinded  them.  They  were  impenitent  sin- 
ners and  hence  they  rejected  Him. 


THE  HARVESTERS'  RETURN. 


390 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER 

THE  JOURNEY  FROM  GALILEE  TO  JERUSALEM.— 
"FIRE  FROM  HEAVEN." — "THE  SON  OF  MAN 
HATH  NOT  WHERE  TO  LAY  HIS  HEAD." — "  LET 
THE  DEAD  BURY  THEIR  DEAD." — "LOOKING 

BACK." 

Matt.    viii.  19-22  ;  Luke  ix.  51-62. 

THE  longest  but  safest  road  from  Galilee  to  Jeru- 
salem, as  we  have  seen,  was  that  through  the  Perea, 
east  of  the  Jordan.  But  that  fact  made  it  also  the 
most  crowded.  Our  Saviour,  whose  purpose  was 
secrecy  and  swiftness,  because  starting  late  He  yet 
desired  to  reach  Jerusalem  before  the  end  of  the  so- 
lemnities, chose  to  take  the  unsafe  but  shorter  route 
through  hostile  Samaria.  As  might 
be  expected,  His  little  party  met 
with  difficulties.  But  He  hurried 
on,  having  "  steadfastly  set  His  face 
to  go  to  Jerusalem."  It  was  be- 
cause "the  days  of  His  assumption 
[or  of  His  death,  and  ascension  into 
heaven]  were  accomplished,"  or  were 
drawing  near. 

It  happened  one  day  that  the  dis- 
ciples who  went  in  advance,  James 
and  John,  the  Sons  of  Thunder, 
having  entered  a  certain  Samaritan 
city  to  prepare  lodging  and  food  for 
the  Saviour,  were  expelled  by  the 
towns-people  because  they  were 
Jews  and  were  going  to  Jerusalem. 
"  Lord,"  said  they  as  they  came 
back,  "  wilt  Thou  that  we  command 


JESUS   AS   NOVICE-MASTER. 

And  he  sent  messengers  before  his  face  ; 
and  going,  they  entered  into  a  city  of 
the  Samaritans  to  prepare  for  him.  And 
they  received  him  not,  because  his  face  was 
of  one  going  to  Jerusalem.  And  when  his 
disciples  James  and  John  had  seen  this 
they  said  :  Lord,  wilt  thou  that  we  com- 
mand fire  to  come  down  from  heaven  and 
consume  them  ?  And  turning  he  rebuked 
them,  saying :  You  know  not  of  what  spirit 
you  are.  The  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  de- 
stroy souls  but  to  save.  And  they  went 
unto  another  town.  And  it  came  to  pass 
as  they  walked  in  the  way  that  a  certain 
man  said  to  him :  I  will  follow  thee 
whithersoever  thou  goest.  Jesus  said  to 
him :  The  foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds 
of  the  air  nests,  but  the  Son  of  Man  hath 
not  where  to  lay  his  head.  But  he  said 
to  another:  Follow  me.  And  he  said: 
Lord,  suffer  me  first  to  go  and  to  bury  my 
father.  And  Jesus  said  to  him  :  Let  the 
dead  bury  their  dead,  but  go  thou  and 
preach  the  Kingdom  of  God.  And  an- 
other said  :  I  will  fallow  thee,  Lord,  but 
let  me  first  take  leave  of  them  that  are  at 
my  house.  Jesus  said  to  him :  No  man 
putting  his  hand  to  the  plough  and  looking 
back  is  fit  for  the  Kingdom  of  God. 


fire  to  come  down  from  heaven  and  consume  them  ? ' ' 


JOURNEY  FROM  GALILEE  TO  JERUSALEM.  391 

thus  recalling  the  terrible  act  of  Klias  in  thus  punishing 

God's    enemies.     ''And   He,  turning,    rebuked   them, 

saying,    You 

know  not  of 

what       spirit 

you  are.   The 

Son    of  Man 

came    not   to 

destroy  souls 

but  to  save." 

The  Apostles 

thought    that 

to     overcome 

sin    the    best 

weapon     was 

fire ;    Jesus 

preferred  "The  unsafe  but  shorter  route  through  hostile  Samaria." 

love.  It  was  much  out  of  place  to  resort  to  the  methods 
of  Elias  in  the  presence  of  the  Lamb  of  God.  Rarely 
would  He  have  us  use  the  awful  penalties  of  divine 
wrath,  though,  as  in  after  times  in  the  case  of  Ananias 
and  Sapphira,  they  were  sometimes  to  be  invoked  by 
His  disciples. 

As  they  journeyed  on,  "A  certain  man  said  to 
Him:  I  will  follow  Thee  whithersoever  Thou  goest." 
A  brave  heart  no  doubt,  and  worthy  of  being  one  of 
our  ford's  Poor  Men.  He  gave  him  no  stinted  voca- 
tion in  His  answer:  "Jesus  said  to  him:  The  foxes 
have  holes,  and  the  birds  of  the  air  nests,  but  the 
Son  of  Man  hath  not  where  to  lay  His  head."  No 
wonder,  then,  that  in  our  Saviour's  Church  the  Chris- 
tian name  of  the  poor  man's  estate  is  Holy  Poverty, 

A  less  willing  disciple,  and  yet  one  more  directly 
called,  was  soon  met  with:  "Jesus  said  to  another: 
Follow  Me.  And  he  said  :  I^ord,  suffer  me  first  to  go 


392 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


and  bury  my  father.  And  Jesus  said  to  him  :  Let  the 
dead  bury  their  dead,  but  go  thou  and  preach  the 
Kingdom  of  God."  Death  shall  not  outrank  life. 
Bven  the  loving  care  of  a  father's  corpse  may  give 
place  to  the  preaching  of  that  word  which  raises  dead 
souls  to  everlasting  life.  Again,  to  wash  the  corpse 
would  have  made  this  young  man  legally  unclean  for 
seven  days,  and  by  that  time  Jesus  would  have  been 
far  away  in  Jerusalem — or  perhaps  the  neophyte's 
fervor  would  be  withered  up  amid  the  cares  and  afflic- 
tions of  his  bereaved  family.  "Follow  Me,"  said 
Jesus;  "let  the  dead  bury  their  dead." 

Another  lesson  of  the  divine  novice-master:  A 
third  follower,  won  by  the  power 
of  Jesus  and  by  His  loving  kind- 
ness, but  not  yet  cut  loose  from 
family  ties,  said  :  "I  will  follow 
Thee,  Lord,  but  let  me  first  take 
my  leave  of  them  that  are  at  my 
house.  Jesus  said  to  him  :  No 
man  putting  his  hand  to  the 
plough  and  looking  back  is  fit 
for  the  Kingdom  of  God."  Jesus 
gives  all,  He  strictly  exacts  all  in 
return.  No  doubt  there  is  place 
for  puny  spirits  in  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  but  only  because  they  may  creep  along  in  the 
shadow  of  the  heroes  who  are  its  characteristic  citi- 
zens. To  hold  the  plough,  as  it  breaks  its  way  through 
the  rough  clods  and  matted  weeds,  a  man  must  at- 
tend to  his  work  and  watch  his  beasts  and  lay  his 
course  ;  he  must  be  vigilant  and  active,  and  not  waste 
and  worry  his  soul  with  other  things  than  ploughing. 
It  is  thus  must  eye  and  hand  and  heart  and  mind  be 
devoted  to  God's  work  when  once  it  is  entered  on. 


"  No  man  putting  his  hand  to  the  plough  and 
looking  back  is  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  God." 


JESUS  IN  JERUSALEM.  393 

CHAPTER  LIU. 

JESUS     IN     JERUSALEM     AT     THE     FEAST     OF     TABER- 
NACLES.— HE   TEACHES   HIS    DIVINE   MISSION. 

John  vii.  11-36. 

PON  arriving  in  the  city,  Jesus  immedi- 
ately began  to  teach  His  divine  mission. 
How  astonishing  it  is  that  what  was 
directly  offered  in  denial  of  this  claim 
was,  first,  that  nobody  knew  of  His  hav- 
ing studied  among  the  doctors  of  the 
law ;  second,  that  He  had  healed  on  the 
Sabbath  day ;  and  third,  that  He  came 
from  Galilee :  trifles  on  one  side  against 
a  mountain  of  evidence  on  another. 

The  city  was  filled  with  pilgrims  from  every  part 
of  Palestine  and  many  from  distant  lands ;  its  streets 
were  traversed  by  processions  of  men  bearing  their 
green  branches,  and  every  available  space  was  covered 
with  the  booths  of  those  who  were  camping  out  in 
commemoration  of  their  ancestors'  sojourn  in  the 
wilderness.  All  this  gave  our  L,ord  a  very  different 
auditory  from  Galilee  with  its  assemblages  of  simple 
peasants.  But  Jesus  of  Nazareth  had  been  a  topic 
of  discussion  before  His  arrival.  "  The  Jews  therefore 
sought  Him  on  the  festival-day,  and  said :  Where  is 
He  ?  And  there  was  much  murmuring  among  the 
multitude  concerning  Him.  For  some  said  :  He  is  a 
good  man.  And  others  said :  No,  but  He  seduceth 
the  people.  Yet  no  man  spoke  openly  of  Him  for  fear 
of  the  Jews.  Now  about  the  midst  of  the  feast  Jesus 
went  up  into  the  Temple  and  taught." 

When  He  appeared  thus  openly  his  enemies  were 
ready  for  Him,  and  at  once  questioned,  not  His  author- 


394  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

ity,  nor  His  ability,  nor  His  holiness,  nor  His  miracles, 
nor  the  soundness  of  His  doctrine,  but,  as  we  would 
say  nowadays,  His  college  diploma:  "And  the  Jews 
wondered,  saying:  How  doth  this  man  know  letters 
having  never  learned.  Jesus  answered  them  and 
said :  My  doctrine  is  not  Mine,  but  His  that  sent 
Me."  And  then  this  familiar  test  is  offered  by  our 
Saviour — a  guileless  servant  of  God  will  be  able  to 
know  how  to  judge  the  truth  when  he  hears  it. 
"If  any  man  will  do  the  will  [of  My  Father],  he 
shall  know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God,  or 
whether  I  speak  of  Myself."  There  is  a  kinship  be- 
tween a  true  man  and  a  true  doctrine,  for  it  answers 
his  heart's  longings,  it  elevates  his  better  nature  into 
control  of  the  lower  nature,  it  looks  true  and  sounds 
right,  it  wears  well  as,  in  course  of  time,  intelligence 
and  will  act  upon  it.  Conscience  responds  to  true 
rules  of  morality,  and  reason  adores  sound  principles. 
Now,  every  word  that  Jesus  had  taught  was  a  revela- 
tion of  truth  as  plain  as  day ;  or  if  involved  in  mys- 
tery, even  then  a  promise  of  inestimable  favor  from 
God.  In  all  this  He  had  steadfastly  spoken  for  His 
Father.  Jesus  tells  them  so,  and  accuses  them  of  dis- 
obedience to  the  Father  by  their  neglect  of  the  law 
of  Moses:  "  He  that  speaketh  of  himself  seeketh  his 
own  glory  ;  but  he  that  seeketh  the  glory  of  him  that 
sent  him,  he  is  true,  and  there  is  no  injustice  in  him. 
Did  not  Moses  give  you  the  law,  and  yet  none  of  you 
keepeth  the  law  ?  Why  seek  you  to  kill  Me  ?  The 
multitude  answered  and  said :  Thou  hast  a  devil. 
Who  seeketh  to  kill  Thee  ?  Jesus  answered  and  said 
to  them :  One  work  I  have  done,  and  you  all  wonder. 
Therefore  Moses  gave  you  circumcision  (not  because 
it  is  of  Moses,  but  of  the  fathers)  ;  and  on  the  Sab- 
bath-day you  circumcise  a  man."  This  referred  to 


HE  TEACHES  HIS  DIVINE  MISSION.  395 

the    miracle    wrought    on    the    Sabbath    during    His 
previous  visit  to  Jerusalem. 

They  wished  to  kill  Him  for  a  Sabbath-breaker. 
He  recalled  that  they  performed  circumcision  on  the 
Sabbath-day  if  necessary  to  keep  the  interval  of  eight 
days  from  birth  prescribed  by  the  law.  "If  a  man 
receive  circumcision  on  the  Sabbath-day,"  reasoned 
our  Saviour,  "that  the  law  of  Moses  may  not  be 
broken,  are  you  angry  with  Me  because  I  have  healed 
the  whole  man  on  the  Sabbath-day?"  He  added  an 
appeal  to  good  sense  as  wrell  as  equity:  "Judge  not 
according  to  the  appearance  but  judge  just  judg- 
ment." 

These   exchanges    between    the    Messias   and    His 
enemies   fixed  the    attention   of  some   groups   of  men 
who  had  heard  of  Him  only  by  a  vague  rumor  of 
the  purpose   to   put  Him  to  death.     They  said: 
"Is  not  this  He  whom  they  seek  to   kill?    And 
behold  He  speaketh  openly  and  they  say  nothing 
to  Him."     From  the  absence  of  the  leading  Phar- 
isees in  the  previous  discussions  they  said,  perhaps 
ironically,  "Have  the  rulers   known    for  a  truth 
that  this  is  the  Christ."     And  they   added  their 
own  blinded  delusion:   "But  we  know  this  man    PRIMITIVE  WINE-PRESS. 
whence   He  is  ;  but   when  the   Christ  cometh  no  man 
knoweth   whence  He  is." 

They  had  not  long  to  wait  for  the  enemy  to  take 
the  field  openly.  While  Jesus  was  answering  this 
difficulty  spies  and  emissaries  were  about  Him.  H 
explained  that  he  was  fully  known  by  His  well-proved 
office  of  a  prophet,  a  teacher,  a  wonder-worker  sent  by 
God ;  by  His  relatives  and  Apostles,  and  even  by 
the  instinctive  hatred  of  His  enemies:  "Jesus  there- 
fore cried  out  in  the  Temple,  teaching  and  saying  : 
You  both  know  Me  and  you  know  whence  I  am,  and 


39«  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

I  am  not  come  of  Myself,  but  He  that  sent  Me  is 
true,  whom  you  know  not.  I  know  Him  because  I 
am  from  Him,  and  He  hath  sent  Me."  Just  as  surely 
as  God  has  made  man  to  know  the  truth,  so  surely 
does  He  make  it  easy  for  man  to  recognize  a  truth- 
teacher.  Jesus  was  pre-eminently  such,  and  as  He 
continually  referred  to  His  Father  as  the  source  of 
His  authority,  His  enemies  must  do  violence  to  their 
own  instincts  as  men  and  as  Israelites  in  order  to 
resist  Him.  Do  violence,  indeed ;  and  hence  they  raged 
the  more  against  Him:  "They  sought  therefore  to 
apprehend  Him,  and  no  man  laid  hands  on  Him,  be- 
cause His  hour  was  not  yet  come." 

The  mystery  of  the  rejection  of  Christ's  teaching  is 
therefore  only  the  ancient  mystery  of  human  pride. 
But  He  was  not  rejected  by  the  whole  people,  nor  by 
anything  but  a  minority ;  this  included,  however,  the 
bulk  of  the  official  leaders  of  the  people.  And  we 
must  know 'that  if  the  Jewish  race  by  its  representa- 
tives did  reject  Him,  the  entire  human  race,  to  which 
He  was  sent,  has  received  Him.  The  leaders  of  the 
Jews  were  appointed  by  God  to  stand  for  all  mankind  ; 
their  most  grievous  error  was  the  delusion  that  they 
were  exclusively  concerned  with  their  own  people. 
The  apostasy  of  the  Jewish  priesthood  has  been  re- 
pudiated by  the  nations  of  the  world.  And  it  was 
repudiated  by  multitudes  of  the  Hebrew  people  them- 
selves:  "But  of  the  people  many  believed  in  Him, 
and  said  :  When  the  Christ  cometh,  shall  He  do  more 
miracles  than  these  which  this  Man  doth  ?  "  In  truth 
the  Apostles  and  disciples  of  Christ,  all  Jews,  became 
a  new  priesthood  and  a  higher  one,  and  formed  a 
new  Israel,  and  carried  the  Jewish  name  to  an  im- 
perial dominion  as  wide  as  the  universe,  and  all  the 
more  glorious  because  its  monarch,  Jesus  the  Jew, 


JESUS  OFFERS  THE  WATERS  OF  LIFE.  397 

conquers  by  love  instead  of  by  fear,  by  peace  instead 
of  by  war. 

That  the  Gentiles  should  come  into  the  divine  house- 
hold was  never  far  from  the  thoughts  of  the  Master's 
followers.     So  that  when  He  rebuked  and  hindered  by 
His   mere   words   and  His   glance    the    spies  who  had 
been  sent  to  apprehend  Him,  what  He  said  was  readi- 
ly  turned  by  His  hearers  that  way  :   ' '  The  Pharisees 
heard   the  people  murmuring  these  things  concerning 
Him,    and  the  rulers   and  Pharisees  sent  ministers   to 
apprehend  Him.     Jesus  therefore  said  to  them :  Yet  a 
little  while  I  am  with  you,  and 
then  I  go  to  Him  that  sent  Me. 
You    shall    seek    Me  and  shall 
not  find  Me,  and  where  I  am, 
thither  you  cannot  come.     The 
Jews    therefore    said    amongst 
themselves :    Whither  will   He 
go  that  we  shall  not  find  Him? 
Will  He  go  unto  the  dispersed 
among  the  Gentiles,  and  teach 
the  Gentiles?    What  is  this  say- 
ing   that  He   hath   said  :    You 

.  "  They  sought  to  apprehend  him." 

shall  seek  Me  and  shall  not  find 

Me,  and  where  I  am  you  cajinot  come?  " 


CHAPTER  LIV.. 

JESUS  OFFERS  THE   WATERS  OF  I^IFE. — THE  ATTEMPT 
TO  APPREHEND   HIM   IN    THE   TEMPI.E. 

John  vii.  37-53. 

THE  last  day  of  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  was  the 
most  solemn  and  was  called  its  great  day.  The 
Temple  was  the  centre  of  a  countless  throng,  palpi- 
tating with  Oriental  religious  fervor  Jesus  took  ad- 


398 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


A  BOOTH   OF   BRANCHES 


vantage  of  this.  Making  His  way  to  a  conspicuous 
point  on  the  wide  stairways,  and  so  commanding  a 
vast  multitude,  He  proclaimed  Himself  the  fountain 
of  all  divine  truth.  Surely  none  but  God  could  truth- 
fully utter  His  words,  referring  as  they  did  to  the 
prophecy  of  Isaias  (Iv.  i)  :  "Ho  all  ye  that  thirst, 
come  to  the  fountains."  Jesus  "  stood  and  cried,  say- 
ing :  If  any  thirst,  let  him  come  to  Me  and  drink. 
He  that  believeth  in  Me,  as  the  Scripture  saith,  Out 
of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  living  water." 
This  was  clearly  a  claim  of  identity  with  truth, 
but  it  had  a  deeper  meaning,  one  as  yet  hid- 
den. The  Evangelist  adds:  "Now  this  He 
said  of  the  Spirit  which  they  should  receive 
who  believed  in  Him,  for  as  yet  the  Spirit  was 
not  given,  because  Jesus  was  not  yet  glorified." 
Long  after  this  St.  Paul  said  of  the  rock  from  which 
the  people  drank  in  the  wilderness,  that  it  was  Christ. 
Moses  smote  the  rock  and  abundant  waters  flowed 
forth  to  save  people  dying  of  thirst.  The  dispensation 
which  Moses  represented  had  again  struck  the  rock. 
The  lips  of  Christ,  touched  by  the  prophetic  fulness 
of  time,  are  opened,  and  out  springs  the  water  of  life, 
the  Word  of  God,  upon  whose  cleansing  and  refresh- 
ing streams  the  Holy  Spirit  broods,  impregnating  it 
with  divine  force.  And  how  well  has  this  promise 
of  life  been  fulfilled.  Every  believer  in  Christ  has 
been  an  irrigating  channel  in  the  field  of  the  world. 
Souls  as  dry  as  the  desert's  sand  have  bloomed  with 
fertility  as  they  learned  of  Christ  from  parents,  priests, 
or  friends.  Souls  that  once  had  Christ  and  gave  Him 
up  and  were  dead  to  Him,  have  come  to  life  again  by 
the  word  of  Christ  calling  them  to  penance.  If  we 
can  know  what  human  life  is  and  what  adds  a  new 
life  to  it,  we  know  that  the  teaching  of  Christ  is  a  new 


THE  A  T TEMPT  TO  APPREHEND  HIM. 


399 


birth  by  absolution    for  sin    and  personal    union   with 
the  Deity. 

The  effect  of  this  proclamation  of  the  Saviour 
(which  is  given  by  St.  John  only  in  abridgment)  was, 
as  usual,  the  immediate  division  of  the  multitude : 
"Of  that  multitude,  therefore,  when  they  had  heard 
these  words  of  His,  some  said  :  This  is  the  Prophet 
indeed.  Others  said  :  This  is  the  Christ.  But  some 
said :  Doth  the  Christ  come  out  of  Galilee  ?  Doth 
not  the  Scripture  say  that  Christ  cometh  of  the  seed 
of  David,  and  from  Bethlehem,  the  town  where  David 
was  ?  So  there  arose  a  dissension  among  the  people 
because  of  Him.  And  some  of  them  would  have 
apprehended  Him,  but  no  man  laid  hands  upon 
Him." 

And  why  did  not  the  emissaries  of  the  Pharisees 
seize  Him?  The  Kvangelist  gives  us  the  reason. 
He  transfers  the  scene  from  the  teeming  masses  of 
worshippers  to  a  secret  meeting  of  the  conspirators  : 
the  spies  of  the  enemy  had  themselves  felt  the  spell  of 
Jesus :  ' '  The  ministers  there- 
fore came  to  the  chief  priests 
and  the  Pharisees.  And  they 
said  to  them  :  Why  have  you 
not  brought  Him  ?  The  min- 
isters answered  :  Never  did 
man  speak  like  this  man. 
The  Pharisees  therefore  an- 
swered them  :  Are  you  also 
seduced  ?  Hath  any  one  of 
the  rulers  believed  in  Him, 
or  of  the  Pharisees  ?  But 
this  multitude  that  knoweth 
not  the  law  are  accursed." 

Now 


it    happened    that 


MOUNT  OLIVET. 


400  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

among  "the  rulers"  present  at  this  conference  was 
Nicodemus,  "he  that  came  to  Kim  by  night"  ;  and 
perhaps  there  were  a  few  others  like-minded,  timid 
souls,  but  not  disloyal  to  Jesus ;  not  open-day  fol- 
lowers of  Christ,  but  yet  adherents  under  cover  of 
darkness.  Nicodemus  said:  "Doth  our  law  judge 
any  man  unless  it  first  hear  him  and  know  what 
he  doth?"  The  answer  was  a  shameless  evasion  of 
the  question.  Nicodemus  insisted  that  Christ  should 
not  be  condemned  without  a  trial,  a  right  given  both 
by  the  law  of  Moses  and  the  universal  law  of  fair 
dealing.  The  answer  was,  "  Art  thou  also  a  Galilean  ? 
Search  the  Scriptures,  and  see  that  out  of  Galilee 
a  prophet  riseth  not?"  Search  you  your  motives, 
Nicodemus  might  have  answered,  and  see  that  you 
are  athirst  for  this  Man's  blood  because  He  will  not 
bow  down  to  your  ambition,  nor  conform  Himself 
to  your  man-made  observances,  Nicodemus,  however, 
had  done  all  he  was  able  to  do.  For  a  timid  man  it 
was  heroism  to  rise  up  among  these  arrogant  and 
foaming  Pharisees  and  make  a  plea  even  for  fair 
play.  He  might  have  accepted  the  challenge  of 
Scripture  dispute  about  Galilee,  for  Isaias  (ix.  i) 
was  on  his  side,  and  Jonas,  Nahum,  Osee,  and  perhaps 
even  Elias,  might  be  claimed  for  Galilee. 

"And  every  man  returned  to  his  own  house ;  and 
Jesus  went  unto  Mount  Olivet."  As  the  crowds  dis- 
persed Jesus  went  to  Mount  Olivet,  there  to  pass  the 
night  in  the  leafy  shelter  of  the  booth  of  some  one 
of  his  friends.  Olivet  from  this  time  forward  became 
a  place  of  prayer  and  of  private  conference  for  the 
Saviour,  close  to  the  city  as  it  was,  and  covered 
with  the  wide-spreading  branches  of  an  olive  grove. 


THE  WOMAN  TAKEN  IN  ADULTERY. 


401 


CHAPTER  LV. 

THE   WOMAN   TAKEN    IN   ADUI/TERY. 

John  viii.  i-n. 

AFTER  His  night's  rest  and  prayer  at  Mount  Olivet, 
Jesus  came  early  in  the  morning  again  to  the  Temple, 
' '  and  all  the  people  came  to  Him  ;  and  sitting  down 
He  taught  them."  His  enemies  soon  interrupted  His 
teaching,  having  seized  an  opportunity  to  ensnare 
Him.  During  the  relaxations  of  the  feast  a  miserable 
woman  had  been  taken  in  adultery, 
brought  before  the  priests  and  ac- 
cused. They  saw  their  good  fortune 
in  this  poor  wretch's  crime.  They 
determined  to  bring  her  publicly  be- 
fore Jesus  and  force  an  alternative 
upon  Him.  He  must  condemn  her 
to  be  stoned  to  death  according  to 
the  law  of  Moses,  or  He  must  let 
her  go  free,  and  so  decide  against 
the  law.  They  knew  His  pity  for 
sinners  ;  it  was  a  powerful  element 
of  His  popularity ;  they  hoped  it 
would  betray  Him  into  public  con- 
tradiction of  Moses. 

The  penalty  of  death  for  adultery 
had  long  fallen  into  disuse.  The 
Pharisees  had  not  revived  it,  with  all  their  strict  ob- 
servance. They  hoped  to  compel  the  kind-hearted 
Saviour  to  this  odious  act,  or  involve  Him  in  down- 
right opposition  to  the  fundamental  law.  Little  did 
they  dream  that  the  simplicity  of  a  kindly  heart  can 
outwit  the  craft  of  a  hateful  one. 

Forward  they    came,    dragging    the    culprit    with 


JESUS    WRITES   UPON    THE    GROUND. 

And  the  Scribes  ?nd  Pharisees  bring 
unto  him  a  woman  taken  in  adultery,  and 
they  set  her  in  the  midst,  and  said  to  him  : 
Master,  this  woman  was  even  now  taken 
in  adultery.  Now  Moses  in  the  law  com- 
manded us  to  stone  such  a  one.  But  what 
sayest  thou  ?  And  this  they  said  tempt- 
ing him,  that  they  might  accuse  him.  But 
Jesus,  bowing  himself  down,  wrote  with 
his  finger  on  the  ground.  When  therefore 
they  continued  asking  him,  he  lifted  up 
himself  and  said  to  them  :  He  that  is  with- 
out sin  among  you,  let  him  first  cast  a 
stone  at  her.  And  again  stooping  down 
he  wrote  on  the  ground.  But  they  hearing 
this  went  out  one  by  one,  beginning  at  the 
eldest.  And  Jesus  alone  remained  and  the 
woman  standing  in  the  midst.  Then  Jesus 
lifting  up  himself,  said  to  her:  Woman, 
where  are  they  that  accused  thee  ?  Hath 
no  man  condemned  thee  ?  Who  said  :  No 
man,  Lord.  And  Jesus  said  :  Neither  will 
I  condemn  thee.  Go,  and  now  sin  no 
more. 


402 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


H  Again  stooping  down  he  wrote 
upon  the  ground," 


them,  their  followers  instructed,  we  may  well  suppose, 
that  if  Jesus  defied  Moses  they  should  immediately 
arouse  the  mob  and  apprehend  Him,  perhaps  put  Him 
to  death  on  the  spot.  They  fling  the  unhappy  woman 
at  His  feet,  and  amid  breathless  interest  they  cry  : 
"  Master,  this  woman  was  even  now  taken  in  adultery. 
Now  Moses  in  the  law  commanded  us  to  stone  such 
a  one.  But  what,  sayest  Thou?"  How  could  the 
most  pure  Son  of 'the  Virgin  even  look  at  such  a  dis- 
gusting object  as  this  woman  ?  He  had  made  the 
law  of  Moses  Himself;  and  who  hated  adultery  as 
Jesus  did  ?  The  combined  aversion  of  all  these  Phari- 
sees, yes,  and  of  all  other  human  beings  together,  for 
this  degrading  crime,  was  as  nothing  to  the  supreme 
and  eternal  hatred  of  the  Son  of  God.  It  is  His  wrath 
against  sin  that  kindles  the  unquenchable 
fire  of  hell.  But  His  compassion  for  sin- 
ners shuts  the  door  of  hell  and  keeps  it 
shut  till  final  impenitence  forces  it  open. 
He  did  look  upon  the  poor  wretch  ;  He 
did  turn  His  kind  glances  towards  her, 
piercing  her  soul  with  a  sense  of  sorrow 
which  quickly  replaced  the  frantic  ter- 
ror which  had  before  pos- 
sessed her.  But  He  must 
give  an  answer.  what 
could  He  say  ?  He  looked 
at  the  hard,  cynical  faces 
of  the  woman's  enemies,  His  enemies. 
should  He  say?  Should  He  ex- 
claim, Take  her  away  and  kill  her? 

He  seemed  to  hesitate,  but  this  was 
only  for  the  purpose  of  making  the  weight 
of  His  rebuke  all  the  more  crushing  when 
it  came:  "But  Jesus,  bowing  Himself 


r 


WOMAN  TAKEN  IN  ADULTERY. 


403 


down,  wrote  with  His  finger  on  the  ground." 
What  did  He  write  ?  This  is  the  only  time 
in  His  whole  history  that  He  is  known  to 
have  written  a  word.  Perhaps  He  wrote 
this  :  "  The  mercies  of  the  L,ord  I  will  sing 
for  evermore"  (Ps.  Ixxxviii.)  But  there 
they  stood,  ravening  for  the  woman's  blood 
with  which  to  spatter  His  fame  for  kindness 
of  heart ;  or  they  insisted  that  He  should 
be  driven  into  rebellion  against  the  law  of 
Moses  and  so  on  to  His  own  ruin.  They 
clamored  for  an  answer  as  hounds  yelp  when 
they  see  their  prey  staggering  with  exhaus- 
tion. But  in  a  moment  they  were  baffled 
by  a  most  unexpected  answer :  ' '  When 
therefore  they  continued  asking  Him,  He 
lifted  up  Himself  and  said,  to  them :  He 
that  is  without  sin  among  you,  let  him 
first  cast  a  stone  at  her."  The  law  must  be  observed 
(as  if  to  say),  but  let  all  be  done  rightly.  Its 
provisions  forbid  one  criminal  to  prosecute  another. 
L,et  the  innocent  accusers  stand  forth.  And  His  eye, 
changing  its  pitying  glances,  but  now  given  to  the 
adulterous  woman,  blazed  with  anger  upon  her  ac- 
cusers. It  was  the  eye  of  the  Sovereign  Judge  search- 
ing and  revealing  the  hidden  wickedness  of  their 
hearts.  Then,  as  if  this  word  of  His  and  His  look 
were  able  to  do  the  rest,  "  Again  stooping  down 
He  wrote  on  the  ground." 

The  battle  was  won.  The  accusers  dreaded  that 
when  He  rose  upon  them  a  second  time  He  would 
reveal  their  secret  sins,  and  not  by  mere  looks  but 
by  words  of  fiery  truth.  The  older  ones  slipped  away 
and  disappeared  in  the  encircling  multitude — hoary- 
headed  villains,  reeking  with  foul  vice,  hardened  and 


"  Moses  commanded  us  to  stone 
such  a  one." 


404  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

irredeemable  sinners,  Then  the  others:  "But  they 
hearing  this  went  out  one  by  one,  beginning  at  the 
eldest.  And  Jesus  alone  remained  and  the  woman 
standing  in  the  midst." 

What  a  singular  spectacle — Jesus  standing  alone 
with  the  adulteress  in  sight  of  the  people  !  This  repre- 
sents His  position  towards  our  poor  fallen  race,  pitiful, 
hating  no  one  but  our  haters,  glad  to  save  us  public- 
ly and  privately,  not  ashamed  to  be  our  advocate  in 
our  deepest  guilt,  craving  no  victory  except  to  win 
us  from  our  evil  ways.  There  stood  that  unclean 
thing,  her  face  purpled  with  shame,  her  form  bent 
and  trembling  with  her  agony,  but  a  little  thrill  of 
hope  and  a  strong  wave  of  thankfulness  in  her  soul. 
No  Roman  conqueror  ever  rode  in  triumph  up  to 
the  Capitol,  followed  by  his  captive  kings  and  his 
rich  booty,  with  half  the  joy  with  which  Jesus  Christ 
looked  upon  this  woman,  the  spoils  of  His  battle  with 
His  enemies  and  hers.  What  tender  music  was  in  His 
voice  as  He  said  to  her:  "Woman,  where  are  they 
that  accused  thee?  Hath  no  man  condemned  thee? 
Who  said:  No  man,  Lord.  And  Jesus  said :  Neither 
will  I  condemn  thee.  Go,  and  now  sin  no  more." 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  this  touching  incident 
is  omitted  from  many  early  versions  of  the  Gospels. 
St.  Augustine  and  St.  Ambrose  attribute  this  to  the 
overcareful  prudence  of  some  of  the  Eastern  churches, 
which  feared  that  the  laxity  of  morals  in  the  Orient 
might  misuse  this  lesson  of  divine  compassion :  a 
singular  misunderstanding  of  God's  ways,  and  an 
equally  singular  mistrust  of  the  latent  nobility  of 
human  nature  even  when  degraded  by  sin.  • 


JESUS  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  WORLD.  405 

CHAPTER   I/VI. 

JESUS  THE   LIGHT   OP   THE    WORI,D. 
John  viii.  12-19. 

THE  most  gorgeous  spectacle  of  the  Feast  of  Taber- 
nacles was  the  illumination  of  the  western  side  of 
the  Temple.  Two  high  towers  were  covered  with 
lights  which  flashed  brilliantly  across  that  slope  of 
the  city,  every  house  hanging  out  its  responsive 
lamps.  Jesus  on  His  return  from  Olivet  in  the  early 
hours  of  the  day  following  had  gone  into  the  court 
of  the  treasury,  not  far  from  the  meeting-room  of 
the  Sanhedrin,  the  fading  lanterns  showing  in  sad 
contrast  with  the  bright  morning  sunshine. 

After  the  sudden  and  startling  incident  of  the 
adulterous  woman,  Jesus  resumed  His  discourse,  tak- 
ing a  suggestion  from  the  illumination  of  the  even- 
ing before  and  its  present  forlorn  aspect.  He  thus 
began  :  "I  am  the  light  of  the  world."  Who  but 
God's  only  begotten  Son  could  say  that  ?  How 
bold  a  claim,  made  in  the  heart  of  the  Hebrew  ANCIENT  HORN  LAMP- 
Temple  !  "  He  that  followeth  Me  walketh  not  in  dark- 
ness, but  shall  have  the  light  of  life."  Malachias 
had  indeed  said  of  Him  that  He  should  rise  "as  a 
sun  of  righteousness  for  the  friends  of  God  "  (iv.  2). 
And  Simeon,  who  received  Him  in  that  same  Temple, 
had  seen  in  Him  so  bright  a  light  for  Jew  and  Gen- 
tile that  it  made  him  long  for  the  glorious  beams  of 
Paradise.  But  the  Pharisees  were  otherwise  minded. 
"  They  said  to  Him:  Thou  givest  testimony  of  Thy- 
self; Thy  testimony  is  not  true."  It  was  the  old  attack 
upon  His  credentials.  Jesus  answered  them  with  a 
double  argument.  First,  admitting  that  He  was  His 
own  authentication,  His  word  was  yet  to  be  received, 


406  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

at  least  as   a   first  step,   for  no  man  knows  another's 
mission   so  well  as   he  does  himself.     Light  does   not 
need   other    light   to   prove   that   it   is    light.      Truth 
accredits   itself.     The  air  of  conviction,  the  lofty  doc- 
trine of  Jesus,  were  like  the  official  dress  and  courtly 
bearing    of   an   ambassador.      "Jesus    answered    and 
said  to  them :  Although   I  give  testimony   of   Myself, 
My   testimony  is   true  ;    for   I   know   whence    I   came 
and  whither  I  go  ;    but  you  know  not  whence  I  come 
and  whither  I  go."     He  that   claims  positive   knowl- 
edge  of  a  question  should   at  least   be  given  a   hear- 
ing  by  those  who    admit   no    knowledge    at  all.     But 
they   had    base    motives,    as   He   had  charitable   ones 
even    in    dealing    with    His   enemies:     "You    judge 
according    to    the    flesh;    I    judge     not    any    man." 
Upon   which   He   advanced — how   many   times   before 
had  He  not  done  it  ? — the  argument   of  His  Father's 
approval,    shown   by  His   miracles,    and   that   of    His 
Father's  appointment,  shown  by  the   fulfilment  of  the 
Messianic  prophecies  :   "  And  if  I  do  judge,  My  judg- 
ment is   true,  because  I  am  not  alone,  but  I  and  the 
Father  that   sent    Me."      Then   He   takes   their   own 
view  of   the   rules    of   evidence   and    turns   it   against 
them:   "And  in  your   own  law   it  is  written  that  the 
testimony  of  two  men  is  true."     He  sums  up  the  two 
authentics   of  His   right   to  teach:    "I  am   One  that 
give   testimony  of  Myself,    and  the    Father   that   sent 
Me  giveth   testimony  of  Me."     A  flippant    answer  is 
the   ready   refuge  of  guilty    ignorance.      They    knew 
full  well  whom  He  meant  by  His  "  Father,"   yet  they 
would    annoy   Him,    if  nothing    more.     "They    said 
therefore  to    Him  :   Where   is  thy    Father  ?     Jesus  an- 
swered :   Neither   Me  do   you   know   nor   My  Father ; 
if  you  did  know   Me,    perhaps    you  would   know  My 
Father  also.'1 


"  YOU  SHALL  DIE  IN  YOUR  SINS."  407 

His  cause  is  gained  in  the  court  of  the  law  of 
Moses,  for  He  has  two  witnesses  who  approve  Him. 
First,  His  own  established  character :  it  is  that  of 
superhuman  virtue,  wisdom,  loving  kindness ;  second, 
the  living  God  is  with  Him,  for,  as  Nicodemus  had 
said,  no  man  could  do  the  works  which  He  did  unless 
God  were  with  Him.  He  will  soon  adc?  ^  third  wit- 
ness, that  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  Gotf  inspiring  the 
heart  of  the  individual  believer  by  His  direct  illumina- 
tion. This  will  complete  the  testimony  for  Jesus 
in  all  ages,  the  Father  by  His  mission  and  His 
miracles,  the  Son  by  His  wisdom  and  His  love  unto 
death,  the  Spirit  by  His  person**!  sanctification. 

CHAPTER    LVII. 

"YOU  SHAU,  DIE  IN  YOUR  SINS." — JESUS  TEACHES 
TRUE  FREEDOM. — THE  SECRET  OP  LIFE. — "BE- 
FORE ABRAHAM  WAS  MADE,  I  AM." 

John  viii.  20-59. 

/ONTINUING  to  teach  in  the  Tem- 
pie,  and    in    open    defiance   of  the 
Pharisees'    purpose     to    seize     Him 
("for  His  time  was  not  yet  come"), 
Jesus    discoursed    upon    His    union 
with  the  Father,  upon  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  human  soul   from  error, 
and  upon  His  relation  as  the  Messias 
to  the  Patriarch  Abraham.     He  was  continually  inter- 
rupted and  insulted,  but  He  turned  everything  to  the 
advantage  of  His  argument. 

The  feast  being  over,  the  great  multitudes  of 
strangers  had  begun  to  go  home.  Many  of  those  who 
remained  and  heard  Him  were  earnest  seekers  after 
truth ;  others  were  hot  enemies.  He  openly  pro- 


4o8 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


claimed  His  power  to  escape  their  cruel  designs:  "  I 
go,  and  you  shall  seek  Me,  and  you  shall  die  in  your 
sin.  Whither  I  go,  you  cannot  come."  His  prophecy 
of  their  evil  end  enraged  them  only  the  more,  and 
they  asked  derisively,  "  Will  He  kill  Himself?  because 
He  said,  Whither  I  go,  you  cannot  come?"  But 
both  His  power  over  them  and  the  motive  of  their 
hatred  He  disclosed,  saying  :  "  You 
are  from  beneath,  I  am  from  above. 
You  are  of  this  world,  I  am  not  of 
this  world.  Therefore  I  said  to  you 
that  you  shall  die  in  your  sins.  For 
if  you  believe  not  that  I  am  He, 
you  shall  die  in  your  sins."  If  God 
has  sent  Him,  God  will  avenge  His 
rejection. 

What  followed  was  an  implied 
teaching  of  His  Divinity.  They 
were  baiting  Him  with  malicious 
questions,  and  He  turned  upon  them 
a  blinding  flash  of  light :  * '  They  said 
therefore  to  Him  :  Who  art  Thou  ?  Jesus  said  to  them  : 
The  Beginning,  who  also  speak  to  you.  Many  things  I 
have  to  speak  and  to  judge  of  you."  The  Beginning 
is  God,  and  now  it  has  taken  form  and  voice,  it  teaches 
and  it  judges.  That  would  be  plain  enough  to  a 
thoughtful  mind,  only  that  the  succeeding  words 
brought  in  another  view  of  the  Deity,  and  until  the 
Trinity  were  fully  known,  involved  the  mind  in  mys- 
tery:  "  But  He  that  sent  Me  is  true,  and  the  things  I 
have  heard  of  Him,  these  same  I  speak  in  the  world." 
What  God  the  Word  had  received  of  God  the  Father  in 
the  beginning  and  before  the  world  was,  He  now  speaks 
in  the  world  and  as  messenger  of  the  Father.  But 
"  they  understood  not  that  He  called  God  His  Father." 


"  THE  TRUTH  SHALL  MAKE  YOU  FREE." 

Then  Jesus  said  to  those  Jews  that  be- 
lieved him  :  If  you  continue  in  my  word, 
you  shall  be  my  disciples  indeed  :  And  you 
shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall 
make  you  free.  They  answered  him  :  We 
are  the  seed  of  Abraham ;  and  we  have 
never  been  slaves  to  any  man  ;  how  sayest 
thou,  You  shall  be  free.  Jesus  answered 
them  :  Amen,  amen  I  say  unto  you  :  That 
whosoever  committeth  sin,  is  the  servant  of 
sin.  Now  the  servant  abideth  not  in  the 
house  for  ever:  but  the  Son  abideth  for 
ever.  If,  therefore,  the  Son  shall  make 
you  free,  you  shall  be  free  indeed.  I  know 
that  you  are  the  children  of  Abraham  :  but 
you  seek  to  kill  me,  because  my  word  hath 
no  place  in  you.  I  speak  that  which  I  have 
seen  with  my  Father:  and  you  do  the 
things  that  you  have  seen  with  your 
father. 


409 


JESUS  TEACHES  TRUE  FREEDOM. 

How  and  when  should  they  and  all 
mankind  know  what  He  and  the  Father 
are  to  each  other?  The  answer  is  the 
Cross.  Hence  the  universal  and  imme- 
morial custom  of  Christians  of  naming  the 
divine  Trinity,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost,  while  signing  themselves  with  the 
cross.  It  was  armed  with  the  cross,  on 
which  His  enemies  had  lifted  Him  up,  that 
the  disciples  went  forth  to  the  four  quar- 
ters of  the  globe  proclaiming  ' '  that  this 
Man  was  indeed  the  Son  of  God."  Jesus 
now  foretells  this  :  ' c  When  you  shall  have 
lifted  up  the  Son  of  Man,  then  shall  you 
know  that  I  am  He,  and  that  I  do  nothing 
of  Myself,  but  as  the  Father  hath  taught 
Me  these  things  I  speak.  And  He  that 
sent  Me  is  with  Me,  and  He  hath  not  left  Me  alone  ; 
for  I  do  always  the  things  that  please  Him."  In  vain 
shall  they  affix  the  broad  seal  of  Rome  upon  His  tomb 
and  station  the  imperial  soldiers  to  guard  it.  He  shall 
rise  from  the  dead.  The  Crucified  Son  of  God  has 
by  His  death  made  the  Father  and  the  Spirit  a  single 
resistless  force  with  His  humanity,  as  they  are  one 
nature  with  His  Divinity. 

"When  He  spoke  these  things,  many  believed  in 
Him ' '  ;  mysterious  as  the  teaching  was,  it  told  of 
His  union  with  the  Father,  and  therefore  that  of  all 
whom  He  loved.  To  these  good  souls  He  added  a 
word  about  that  liberty  for  which  the  Jews  yearned : 
' '  If  you  continue  in  My  word  you  shall  be  My  dis- 
ciples indeed.  And  you  shall  know  the  truth,  and 
the  truth  shall  make  you  free." 

The  others  caught  Him  up,  as  usual,  by  wilfully 
misinterpreting  Him  :  ' '  We  are  the  seed  of  Abraham, 


VALLEY  OF  THE  TOMBS  OP  TUB 
KINGS. 


4io 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


and  we  have  never  been  slaves  to  any  man :  how 
sayest  Thou,  You  shall  be  free."  Upon  which  Jesus 
explains  the  difference  between  race  freedom  and  soul 
freedom:  "Amen,  Amen,  I  say  unto  you,  whosoever 
committeth  sin  is  the  servant  of  sin."  But  the  sinless 
man  is  not  only  a  servant  of  God,  he  is  the  son  of 
God :  * '  Now  the  servant  abideth  not  in  the  house 
for  ever,  but  the  son  abideth  for 
ever.  If  therefore  the  Son  shall 
make  you  free,  you  shall  be  free  in- 
deed. I  know  that  you  are  the  chil- 
dren of  Abraham,  but  you  seek  to 
kill  Me,  because  My  word  hath  no 
place  in  you." 

As  to  their  claim  of  being  sons 
of  Abraham,  Jesus  had  admitted  it 
to  be  true  as  far  as  fleshly  lineage 
went.  But  their  service  of  the  devil 
was  so  complete  as  to  give  them  an- 
other lineage  :  "I  speak  that  which 
I  have  seen  with  My  Father,  and 
you  do  the  things  which  you  have 
seen  with  your  father.  They  an- 
swered and  said  to  Him  :  Abraham 
is  our  father.  Jesus  said  to  them : 
If  you  be  the  children  of  Abraham, 
do  the  works  of  Abraham.  But  now  you  seek  to  kill 
Me,  a  man  who  hath  spoken  the  truth  to  you,  which 
I  have  heard  of  God.  This  Abraham  did  not ;  you 
do  the  works  of  your  father."  They  then  retorted 
by  claiming  to  be  children  of  God.  It  was  in  vain,  for 
Jesus  showed  that  the  inspiration  of  evil  cannot  be 
from  God,  nor  a  good  heart  fail  to  respond  to  the  call 
of  God.  "  They  said  therefore  to  Him  :  We  are  not 
born  of  fornication  ;  we  have  one  father,  even  God. 


SONS  OF  ABRAHAM  AND  SONS  OF  THE  DEVIL. 

They  answered,  and  said  to  him:  Abra- 
ham is  our  father.  Jesus  saith  to  them  :  If 
you  be  the  children  of  Abraham,  do  the 
works  of  Abraham.  But  now  you  seek  to 
kill  me,  a  ,man  who  have  spoken  the  truth 
to  you,  which  I  have  heard  from  God  :  this 
Abraham  did  not.  You  do  the  deeds  of 
your  father.  They  said  then  to  him  :  We 
are  not  born  of  fornication  :  we  have  one 
Father,  God.  But  Jesus  said  to  them  :  If 
God  were  your  Father,  verily  you  would 
love  me.  For  I  proceeded  and  came  from 
God  :  for  I  came  not  of  myself,  but  he  sent 
me.  Why  do  you  not  know  my  speech  ? 
Because  you  cannot  hear  my  word.  You 
are  of  your  father,  the  devil ;  and  the  de- 
sires of  your  father  you  will  do.  He  was 
a  murderer  from  the  beginning,  and  he 
abode  not  in  the  truth  :  because  truth  is 
not  in  him.  When  he  speaketh  a  lie,  he 
speaketh  of  his  own  :  for  he  is  a  liar,  and 
the  father  thereof.  But  if  I  say  the  truth, 
you  believe  me  not.  Which  of  you  shall 
convince  me  of  sin  ?  If  I  say  the  truth  to 
you,  why  do  you  not  believe  me  ?  He  that 
is  of  God,  heareth  the  words  of  God. 
Therefore  you  hear  them  not,  because  you 
are  not  of  God. 


THE  SECRET  OF  LIFE. 


41 1 


Jesus  said  to  them  :  If  God  were  your  Father  you  would 
indeed  love  Me.  For  from  God  I  proceeded  and  came  ; 
for  I  come  not  of  Myself,  but  He  sent  Me."  Souls  un- 
der the  divine  influence  would  instantly  know  this,  God 
bringing  His  own  together :  ' '  Why  do  you  not  know 
My  speech?  Because  you  cannot  hear  My  word." 

By  the  law  of  like  seeking  like  were  these  con- 
spirators and  their  dupes  responsive  to  the  malign 
suggestions  of  the  evil  one,  whose  purpose  with  men 
is  deceit,  dissension,  and  destruction  ;  and  he  was  using 
these,  his  willing  slaves,  to  mislead  the  people  and 
inflame  their  passions  against  Jesus :  ' '  You  are  of 
your  father  the  devil,  and  the  desires  of  your  father 
you  will  do.  He  was  a  murderer  from  the  beginning, 
and  he  stood  not  in  the  truth,  because  truth  is  not 
in  him.  When  he  speaketh  a  lie  he  speaketh  of  his 
own,  for  he  is  a  liar  and  the  father  thereof.  But  if  I 
say  the  truth,  you  believe  me  not." 

And     then      He  _"'.. —  -. 

makes  a  challenge 
to  these  evil-minded 
men,  a  challenge 
whose  very  utter- 
ance is  victory  : 
"Which  of  you  shall 
convict  Me  of  sin  ?  ' ' 
No  being  ever  ap- 
peared so  absolutely 
faultless,  guileless, 
perfect  as  Jesus 
Christ.  To  call  Him 
an  impostor  is  to 
brand  with  burning 
shame  the  lips  that 
speak  the  word.  No  THE  TOMBS  OF  THE  KINGS. 


412 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


other  name  was  ever  heard  so  synonymous  with  good- 
ness as  that  of  Jesus.  And  all  of  His  goodness  is  given 
Him  to  set  Him  forth  as  Saviour  and  Teacher  of  men. 
His  goodness  as  Son  of  God  is  His 
truthfulness  as  spokesman  of  God  :  ' ( If 
I  say  the  truth  to  you,  why  do  you  not 
believe  Me  ?  He  that  is  of  God  heareth 
the  words  of  God.  Therefore  you  hear 
them  not  because  you  are  not  of  God." 
These  last  two  sentences  should  be 
written  in  gold. 

In  reply  the  tormentors  could  only 
babble  forth  in  their  rage  the  oft-re- 
peated charge,  that  Jesus  was  no  Jew 
because  He  loved  all  mankind, 
and  no  true  teacher  but  a  diabolist 
because  He  stood  against  them, 
working  miracles  :  *  *  Do  we  not 
say  well,  that  Thou  art  a  Samari- 
tan and  hast,  a  devil  ?  Jesus  answered  :  I  have  not  a 
devil,  but  I  honor  My  Father  and  you  have  dishon- 
ored Me.  But  I  seek  not  My  own  glory  ;  there  is  One 
that  seeketh  and  judgeth."  Notice  that  Jesus,  spurn- 
ing the  accusation  of  diabolism,  yet  is  not  offended  at 
being  called  a  Samaritan. 

Upon  this  the  Master  turned  towards  those  whose 
good  will  He  could  count  upon,  and  taught  them  the 
immortal  efficacy  of  His  doctrine,  that  it  was  the  true 
elixir  of  life,  saving  the  soul  unto  the  life  of  glory 
in  Heaven,  and  raising  the  body  from  the  grave  to 
a  heavenly  immortality:  "Amen,  Amen,  I  say  to 
you,  if  any  man  keep  My  word,  he  shall  not  see  death 
for  ever."  Now,  most  of  the  enemies  of  Jesus  were 
Pharisees  and  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
and  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  for  defence 


Before  Abraham  was  made,  I  am." 


"BEFORE  ABRAHAM  WAS  MADE,  I  AM: 


413 


of  these  truths  they  were  incessantly  warring  against 
the  Sadducees.  They  knew  full  well,  therefore,  what 
Jesus  meant ;  but  for  all  that  they  snapped  at  Him, 
striving  to  hold  Him  to  a  preposterous  literal  sense  of 
His  words  :  * '  The  Jews  therefore  said  :  Now  we  know 
that  thou  hast  a  devil.  Abraham  is  dead  and  the  pro- 
phets, and  Thou-  sayest,  If  any  man  keep  My  word,  he 
shall  not  taste  death  for  ever.  Art  Thou  greater  than 
our  father  Abraham,  who  is  dead,  and  the  prophets, 
who  are  dead?  Whom  dost  Thou  make  Thyself?  " 

How  grievous  a  perversion  !  Everything  in  Scrip- 
ture proved  that  the  Seed  of  Abraham  was  to  be 
greater  than  he.  Here  is  one  whose  lightest  word 
plainly  surpasses  the  wisdom  of  Abraham  and  of 
his  religion,  nay,  fulfils  it  all  as  the  man  fulfils  the 
child.  Fatal  error,  to  look  for  a  perpetuation  of  a 
promise  rather  than  for  its  fulfilment  !  But  this  error 
was  that  of  minds  on  fire  with  passionate  ambition. 
Jesus  answers  them  by  again  calling 
them  back  to  consider  His  union 
with  His  Father,  and  does  so  in  a 
way  to  bring  home  to  honest  minds 
His  relation  to  Abraham  as  the  rea- 
son of  Abraham's  dignity  of  Patri- 
arch :  '  'Jesus  answered  :  If  I  glorify 
Myself,  My  glory  is  nothing.  It  is 
My  Father  that  glorifieth  Me,  of 
whom  you  say  that  He  is  your  God. 
And  you  have  not  known  Him,  but 
I  know  Him.  And  if  I  shall  say  that 
I  know  Him  not,  I  shall  be  like  to 
you,  a  liar.  But  I  do  know  Him, 
and  do  keep  His  word." 

And  now  at  last  we  reach  the  end 
of  this  intensely  important  colloquy  : 


GREATER    THAN    ABRAHAM. 

Amen,  amen  1  say  to  you,  if  any  man 
keep  my  word,  he  shall  not  see  death  for 
ever.  The  Jews,  therefore,  said  :  Now  we 
know  that  thou  hast  a  devil.  Abraham  is 
dead,  and  the  prophets  :  and  thou  sayest : 
If  any  man  keep  my  word,  he  shall  not 
taste  death  for  ever.  Art  thou  greater 
than  our  father  Abraham  who  is  dead  ? 
and  the  prophets  are  dead.  Whom  dost 
thou  make  thyself  ?  Jesus  answered  :  If  I 
glorify  myself,  my  glory  is  nothing  :  it  is 
my  Father  that  glorifieth  me,  of  whom  you 
say  that  he  is  your  God.  And  you  have 
not  known  him :  but  I  know  him  ;  and  if  1 
should  say  that  I  know  him  not,  I  should  be 
like  to  you,  a  liar.  But  I  know  him,  and 
keep  his  word.  Abraham  your  father  re- 
joiced that  he  might  see  my  day  :  he  saw  it, 
and  was  glad.  The  Jews  then  said  to  him  : 
Thou  art  not  yet  fifty  years  old  ;  and  hast 
thou  seen  Abraham  ?  Jesus  saith  to  them, 
Amen,  amen  1  say  to  you,  before  Abraham 
was  made,  I  am.  Then  they  took  up  stones 
to  cast  at  him  :  but  Jesus  hid  himself,  and 
went  out  of  the  Temple. 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Took  up  stones  to  cast 
at  Him." 


it  is  an  outright  claim  on  the  part  of  Jesus  to  possess 
one  of  the  incommunicable  attributes  of  the  Godhead 
— eternity.  Jesus  exclaimed:  "Before  Abraham  was 
made,  I  AM."  This  is  the  name  which  Jehovah  gave 
Himself  when  He  spoke  to  Moses  from  the  burning 
bush  :  I  am.  God  is  not  of  the  past  nor  of  the  future; 
He  is  the  Everlasting  Now.  Abraham  was  the  great- 
est of  men  to  the  Hebrews.  But  he  was  only  man  ;  he 
was  made,  he  was  born,  he  had  a  beginning. 
Jesus  already  had  affirmed,  "I  am  the  Begin- 
ning." Now  He  says  more  simply,  "  I  am."  The 
ages  begin  and  run  onward  and  lapse  to  their  end- 
ing, but  Jesus  is  unchanging  Being,  whose  life  is 
that  of  the  divine  Word,  without  beginning  or 
ending,  the  eternal  life  of  God.  All  this  came 
from  Jesus  in  reference  to  the  Patriarch  Abraham, 
whose  prophetic  eye  had  rejoiced  in  visions  of  the 
Messias :  "Abraham  your  father  rejoiced  that  he 
might  see  My  day  ;  he  saw  it  and  was  glad.  The 
Jews  therefore  said  to  Him  :  Thou  art  not  yet  fifty 
years  old,  and  hast  Thou  seen  Abraham  ?  Jesus 
said  to  them,  Amen,  Amen,  I  say  to  you,  before 
Abraham  was  made,  I  am."  This  left  but  the 
alternative  of  adoring  Jesus  as  God,  or  of  ston- 
ing Him  to  death  as  a  blasphemer.  "  They  took 
up  stones  therefore  to  cast  at  Him  ;  but  Jesus 
hid  Himself  and  went  out  of  the  Temple." 


THE  MAN  BORN  BLIND. 


CHAPTER   I,  VIII. 


MAN    BORN    BLJND. 

John  ix.  1-41. 

As  Jesus  disappeared  into  the  friendly  ranks  of  His 
disciples  and  escaped  from  the  rage  of  His  enemies, 
He  found  an  occasion  for  teaching  a  very  consoling 
doctrine.  Among  the  beggars  at  one  of  the  approaches 
to  the  Temple  was  a  man  blind  from  his  birth.  Stop- 
ping before  him,  Jesus  looked  at  him  and  waited  to 
draw  from  him  some  prayer  for  his  cure.  Whether 
he  was  a  more  than  usually  pitiful 
sight,  or  because  of  some  previous 
disputes  among  the  disciples,  one  of 
them  asked  :  "  Rabbi,  who  hath  sin- 
ned, this  man  or  his  parents,  that  he 
should  be  born  blind  ?  "  It  was  hard 
to  think  that  God  had  punished  him 
for  sins  not  yet  committed,  easier  to 
lay  his  blindness  to  his  parents' 
guilt,  for  many  a  man  suffers  on  that 
account.  Jesus  in  His  turn  taught 
that  such  reasons,  if  present,  are  but 
secondary  ones  with  God.  No  doubt 
that  sin,  in  the  last  resort,  is  the 
cause  of  every  pain  man  suffers,  sin 
of  the  sufferer's  own  committing  or 
of  some  other  culprit,  ranging  from 
Adam  down.  But  God's  permission 
of  human  suffering  is  primarily  for 
His  own  glory  and  the  sufferer's  final  welfare.  Nothing 
is  plainer  than  that  the  servants  of  God  by  their  suffer- 
ings advance  the  dominion  of  their  Heavenly  Father; 
they  do  so  by  the  spectacle  of  their  patience,  courage, 


"I   AM   THE    LIGHT   OF   THE    WORLD." 

And  Jesus  passing  by,  saw  a  man  that 
was  blind  from  his  birth  :  And  his  disciples 
asked  him :  Rabbi,  who  hath  sinned,  this 
man,  or  his  parents,  that  he  should  be  born 
blind  ?  Jesus  answered  :  Neither  hath  this 
man  sinned,  nor  his  parents  ;  but  that  the 
works  of  God  should  be  made  manifest  in 
him.  I  must  work  the  works  of  him  that 
sent  me,  whilst  it  is  day  :  the  night  cometh, 
when  no  man  can  work.  As  long  as  I  am 
in  the  world,  I  am  the  light  of  the  world. 
When  he  said  these  things,  he  spat  on  the 
ground,  and  made  clay  of  the  spittle,  and 
spread  the  clay  upon  his  eyes :  And  said  to 
him  :  Go,  wash  in  the  pool  of  Siloe  (which 
is  interpreted,  Sent).  He  went,  therefore, 
and  washed  ;  and  he  came  seeing.  The 
neighbors,  therefore,  and  they  who  had 
seen  him  before  that  he  was  a  beggar, 
said  :  Is  not  this  he  that  sat,  and  begged  ? 
Some  said  :  This  is  he.  And  others,  No, 
but  he  is  like  him.  But  he  said  :  I  am  he. 
They  said,  therefore,  to  him  :  How  were 
thy  eyes  opened  ?  He  answered :  That 
man  who  is  called  Jesus,  made  clay,  and 
anointed  my  eyes,  and  said  to  me :  Go  to 
the  pool  of  Siloe,  and  wash.  And  I  went, 
I  washed,  and  7 
Where  is  he  ? 


see.    And  they  said  to  him : 
He  saith  :  I  know  not. 


416  LtFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

fortitude,  cheerful  resignation.  They  are  themselves 
elevated  and  strengthened  by  suffering,  and  the  loving 
care  of  sufferers  by  Christian  charity  is  the  school  of 
Christian  heroism.  Therefore  Jesus  answered  :  "  Neith- 
er hath  this  man  sinned  nor  his  parents,  but  that  the 
works  of  God  should  be  made  manifest  in  him."  In 
this  particular  case  the  charity  of  God  was  shown  by 
a  miracle,  soon  to  become  the  talk  of  the  whole  city. 
"  I  must  work  the  works  of  Him  who  sent  Me  whilst  it 
is  day;  the  night  cometh,  when  no  man  can  work.  As 
long  as  I  am  in  the  world,  I  am  the  light  of  the  world." 

As  if  to  say  that  He,  the  light  of  souls,  might 
choose  as  His  favorite  external  prodigy  the  giving  of 
light  to  blind  eyes.  He  chose  to  do  so  now  in  a  solemn 
way,  teaching  the  use  of  external  symbols,  most 
humble  in  their  own  substance — spittle  and  clay — but 
made  divine  in  their  power  by  their  Creator's  use. 
It  is  the  sacramental  idea.  "  When  He  had  said 
these  things  He  spat  on  the  ground  and  made  clay  of 
the  spittle,  and  spread  the  clay  upon  his  eyes,  and  said 
to  him,  Go,  wash  in  the  pool  of  Siloe,  which  is  inter- 
preted, Sent.  He  went,  therefore,  and  washed;  and  he 
came  seeing."  It  was  an  amazing  thing  that  Jesus 
could  give  eyesight  by  a  wish  or  a  word,  but  it  was 
still  more  wonderful  that  He  could  lodge  the  power 
in  clay  and  spittle  to  take  effect  with  the  water  of 
Siloe. 

The  pool  or  spring  of  Siloe  was  in  the  southerly 
part  of  the  city,  between  Moriah  and  Sion.  and  while 
the  blind  man  was  being  led  away  to  wash  this 
singular  ointment  from  his  eyes,  Jesus  and  His  dis- 
ciples left  the  vicinity.  On  the  return  of  the  man, 
completely  possessed  of  sight,  the  miracle  caused  a 
tremendous  excitement.  It  was  His  first  miracle 
since  coming  to  the  city. 


THE  MAN  BORN  BLIND. 


417 


CHAPTER  I,IX0 

CONTENTION  WITH  THE  PHARISEES  ABOUT  THE 
RESTORATION  TO  SIGHT  OP  THE  MAN  BORN 
BLIND. 

John  ix.  13-41. 

IT  happened  that  one  of  the  traditions  of  the 
Pharisees  about  Sabbath  observance  ran  thus  :  It  is 
not  lawful  to  rub  the  eyelids  with  spittle  on  the 
Sabbath  day — an  almost  incredible  pettiness  of  formal- 
ism. Now,  when  this  blind  man  restored  to  sight, 
this  living  evidence  of  the  power  of  Jesus,  was  brought 
to  the  Pharisees,  they  were  nonplussed.  What  could 
be  done  against  such  a  Being  as  Jesus  ?  If  He  gave 
eyesight  to  one  He  might  take  it  from  another.  What 
might  He  not  do  to  any  of  them  ?  Perhaps  He  really 
was  the  Messias.  Dissension  arose.  St.  John  con- 
tinues:  "  They  bring  him  that  had  been  blind  to 
the  Pharisees.  Now  it  was  the  Sabbath  when 
Jesus  made  the  clay  and  opened  his 
eyes.  Again  therefore  the  Pharisees  ask- 
ed him,  how  he  had  received  his  sight. 
But  he  said  to  them :  He  put  clay  upon  my  eyes, 
and  I  washed,  and  I  see.  Some  therefore  of  the 
Pharisees  said  :  This  man  is  not  of  God,  who  keep- 
eth  not  the  Sabbath.  But  others  said :  How  can  a 
man  that  is  a  sinner  do  such  miracles  ?  And  there 
was  a  division  among  them."  They  must  have  call- 
ed a  sort  of  impromptu  meeting  of  the  elders  and 
discussed  the  question,  the  man  being  brought  before 
them.  An  idea  occurred  to  some  cunning  member 
of  the  conspiracy  :  the  man  was  an  accomplice  of 
Jesus,  had  only  pretended  to  be  blind.  This  notion 
changed  from  suspicion  to  certainty  when  they  cross- 


I  went,  I  washed, 
and  I  see." 


4t8  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

questioned  the  man  :  * '  What  sayest  thou  of  Him  that 
hath  opened  thy  eyes  ?  And  he  said :  He  is  a 
prophet."  That  settled  the  matter — the  man  was 
party  to  an  imposture.  But  an  unexpected  difficulty 
soon  arose ;  this  was  the  testimony  of  the  man's 
parents.  "  The  Jews  then  did  not  believe  concerning 
him,  that  he  had  been  blind  and  had  received  his 
sight,  until  they  called  the  parents  of  him  that  had 
received  his  sight.  And  asked  them,  saying :  Is  this 
your  son,  who  you  say  was  born  blind  ?  How  then 
doth  he  now  see?  His  parents  answered  them  and 
said :  We  know  that  this  is  our  son,  and  that  he  was 
born  blind  :  But  how  he  now  seeth,  we  know  not :  or 
who  hath  opened  his  eyes,  we  know  not :  ask  himself; 
he  is  of  age,  let  him  speak  for  himself.  These  things 
his  parents  said,  because  they  feared  the  Jews.  For 
the  Jews  had  already  agreed  among  themselves,  that 
if  any  man  should  confess  Him  to  be  Christ,  he  should 
be  put  out  of  the  synagogue.  Therefore  did  his 
parents  say:  He  is  of  age,  ask  him." 

No,  there  was  no  collusion ;  it  was  not  the  case 
of  a  juggler  and  his  disguised  assistant.  It  was  an 
astounding  miracle,  the  sudden,  perfect,  radical,  un- 
deniable gift  of  sight  to  a  beggar  born  blind,  as  plain 
a  gift  as  a  piece  of  money  would  have  been.  It  must 
be  from  God,  and  it  was  idle  to  set  God's  Sabbath 
against  Himself.  What  then  ?  Something  must  be 
done  with  this  man,  who  had  but  to  open  his  eyes  to 
preach  the  power  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  had  meantime 
got  away  from  them,  but  they  sent  after  him  and 
fetched  him  back.  They  undertook  to  shut  his  mouth, 
since  they  could  not  close  his  eyes.  The  account  of 
the  brief  and  heated  controversy,  in  which  the  common 
sense  of  the  beggar  overthrew  the  shifty  lies  of  the 
doctors  of  the  law,  is  extremely  curious  :  "  They  there- 


THE  MAN  BORN  BUND.  419 

fore  called  the  man  again  that  had  been  blind,  and 
said  to  him :  Give  glory  to  God.  We  know  that 
this  man  is  a  sinner.  He  said  therefore  to  them  :  If 
He  be  a  sinner,  I  know  not :  one  thing  I  know, 
that  whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  see.  They  said 
then  to  him  :  What  did  He  to  thee  ?  How  did  He 
open  thy  eyes  ?  He  answered  them  :  I  have  told  you 
already,  and  you  have  heard :  why  would  you  hear 
it  again  ?  will  you  also  become  His  disciples  ?  They 
reviled  him  therefore,  and  said :  Be  thou  His  dis- 
ciple ;  but  we  are  the  disciples  of  Moses.  We  know 
that  God  spoke  to  Moses :  but  as  to  this  man,  we 
know  not  from  whence  He  is.  The  man  answered, 
and  said  to  them  :  Why,  herein  is  a  wonderful  thing 
that  you  know  not  from  whence  He  is,  and  He  hath 
opened  my  eyes.  Now  we  know  that  God  doth  not 
hear  sinners :  but  if  a  man  be  a  server  of  God,  and 
doth  His  will,  him  He  heareth.  From  the  beginning 
of  the  world  it  hath  not  been  heard  that  any  man 
hath  opened  the  eyes  of  one  born  blind.  Unless  this 
man  were  of  God,  He  could  not  do  anything.  They 
answered,  and  said  to  him  :  Thou  wast  wholly  born 
in  sins,  and  dost  thou  teach  us?  And  they  cast  him 
out."  Our  Saviour  was  touched  by  this  courageous 
conduct,  when  He  heard  of  it.  Seeking  out  the 
man,  He  spoke  with  Him,  every  word  being  a  ray  of 
spiritual  sunlight,  the  opening  of  the  eyes  of  his  soul : 
' '  Jesus  heard  that  they  had  cast  him  out :  and  when 
He  had  found  him,  He  said  to  him :  Dost  thou  believe 
in  the  Son  of  God  ?  He  answered,  and  said :  Who  is 
He,  Lord,  that  I  may  believe  in  Him?  And  Jesus 
said  to  him :  Thou  hast  both  seen  Him,  and  it  is 
He  that  talketh  with  thee.  And  he  said  :  I  believe, 
Lord.  And  falling  down  he  adored  Him."  As  to  the 
Pharisees,  His  words  to  them  are  among  the  saddest 


420  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

ever  recorded.  He  laments  His  lot,  which  is  to  be 
the  gift  of  sight  to  some  and  the  curse  of  blindness 
to  others,  but  a  wilful  blindness,  guilty  and  obstinate. 
The  old  proverb  tells  us,  "  None  are  so  blind  as 
those  who  will  not  see."  Jesus  said  :  "  For  judgment 
I  am  come  into  this  world:  that  they  who  see  not, 
may  see:  and  they  who  see,  may  become  blind. 
And  some  of  the  Pharisees,  who  were  with  Him, 
heard :  and  they  said  unto  Him  :  Are  we  also  blind  ? 
Jesus  said  to  them:  If  you  were  blind,  you  should 
not  have  sin  :  but  now  you  say  :  We  see.  Your  sin 
remaineth." 

CHAPTER  LX. 

THE    SHEPHERD   AND    THE     SHEEP. 
John  x.  I -10. 

JESUS  continued  to  teach,  either  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Temple  or  in  some  spot  convenient  for 
a  gathering  of  the  people,  and  for  a  time  seemed  freer 
from  irritating  interruption.  Perhaps  He  placed  Him- 
self at  the  sheep-gate  of  the  city,  where  the  flocks 
of  sheep,  so  peaceful  and  docile,  with  their  watchful 
shepherds,  would  illustrate  the  discourse  He  was  going 
to  deliver. 

He  had  dwelt  upon  His  sovereign  authority  over 
the  beliefs  of  men  and  their  affections,  affirming  with 
emphasis  that  He  was  Master  of  the  human  mind 
because  He  was  the  Only  Begotten  Son  of  God,  one 
with  the  Father ;  therefore  the  Teacher  of  the  world. 
From  this  interior  realm  He  passes  naturally  to  His 
Father's  external  kingdom,  and  as  He  had  done 
before,  so  now  again  He  affirms  that  His  discipleship 
is  a  sheep  fold  of  which  He  is  the  shepherd.  Between 
Him  and  His  adherents  there  is  an  external  as  well  as 


THE  SHEPHERD  AND  THE  SHEEP. 


421 


an  interior  relation.  The  followers  of  Jesus  are  sepa- 
rated from  the  rest  of  men  not  only  by  difference  of 
belief  but  also  by  an  outward  order  of  life.  Others 
are  indeed  His  sheep,  but  His  lost  sheep.  The  re- 
ligion of  Jesus  is  not  merely  an  inward  transfor- 
mation, shown  by  convictions  and  affections ;  it  is  a 
society,  an  institution  among  institutions,  a  family  set 
off  from  other  families.  Christ  came  both  to  establish 
a  religion  and  to  set  apart  a  people.  But  this  people 
of  God  is  intended  to  include  all  peoples ;  its  purpose 
is  to  save  souls  one  by  one  till  it  has  saved  all. 

"Amen,  Amen  I  say  to  you:  he  that  entereth 
not  by  the  door  into  the  sheep  fold,  but  climbeth  up 
another  way,  the  same  is  a  thief 
and  a  robber."  What  else,  could 
the  servant  in  charge  of  the  fold 
think  of  a  man  who,  avoiding  the 
door,  should  be  caught  climbing 
over  the  high  wall  which  surrounds 
the  sheepfolds  of  the  Orient  ?  How 
different  when  he  hears  at  the  gate 
the  confident  knock  and  familiar 
voice  of  one  of  the  shepherds  ? 
11  But  he  that  entereth  in  by  the 
door  is  the  shepherd  of  the  sheep. 
To  him  the  porter  openeth,  and  the 
sheep  hear  his  voice,  and  he  calleth 
his  own  sheep  by  name  and  leadeth 
them  out.  And  when  he  hath  let 
out  his  own  sheep  he  goeth  before 
them,  and  the  sheep  follow  him, 
because  they  know  his  voice."  One  by  one  and  ad- 
dressing each  by  his  own  name  does  the  shepherd 
deal  with  his  sheep  ;  and  thus  do  Christ  and  His 
representatives  deal  with  His  people,  both  personally 


"  I    AM    THE  DOOR  OF    THE  SHEEP." 

Amen,  amen  I  say  to  you  :  he  that  enter- 
eth not  by  the  door  into  the  sheepfold,  but 
climbeth  up  another  way,  the  same  is  a 
thief  and  a  robber.  But  he  that  entereth 
in  by  the  door,  is  the  shepherd  of  the  sheep. 
To  him  the  porter  openeth  ;  and  the  sheep 
hear  his  voice  :  and  he  calleth  his  own 
sheep  by  name,  and  leadeth  them  out. 
And  when  he  hath  let  out  his  own  sheep, 
he  goeth  before  them,  and  the  sheep  follow 
him,  because  they  know  his  voice.  But  a 
stranger  they  follow  not,  but  fly  from  him, 
because  they  know  not  the  voice  of 
strangers.  This  proverb  Jesus  spoke  to 
them.  But  they  understood  not  what  he 
spoke  to  them.  Jesus  therefore  said  to 
them  again  :  Amen,  amen  I  say  to  you,  I 
am  the  door  of  the  sheep.  All  others,  as 
many  as  have  come,  are  thieves  and  rob- 
bers :  and  the  sheep  heard  them  not.  I  am 
the  door.  By  me,  if  any  man  enter  in,  he 
shall  be  saved  :  and  he  shall  go  in,  and  go 
out,  and  shall  find  pastures.  The  thief 
cometh  not  but  for  to  steal  and  to  kill  and 
to  destroy.  I  am  come  that  they  may  have 
life,  and  may  have  it  more  abundantly. 


422 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


and  as  a  family,  each  one  by  himself  and  all  together 
as  brethren,  in  loving  union  and  peace.  The  robber- 
shepherd,  the  teacher  of  error,  is  very  different.  He 
resorts  to  hypocrisy,  usurpation,  misleading  the  un- 
wary, poisoning  the  minds  of  the  people  with  sus- 
picions, creating  dissensions,  all  plain  marks  of  Satan 
and  true  marks  of  a  robber-shepherd. 

Such  shepherds  cannot  pass  the  gate-keeper,  and 
when  they  find  that  they  cannot  obtain  the  sanction 
of  lawful  authority,  they  belittle  or  openly  reject  it. 
They  are  unfamiliar  with  the  gentle  ways  of  Christ's 
sheep  :  "  But  a  stranger  they  follow  not,  but  fly  from 
him,  because  they  know  not  the  voice  of  strangers." 
They  know  the  voice  of  their  own  shepherd,  for  he  ap- 
peals to  their  love  of  God.  with  the  freedom  of  a  father, 
he  is  at  home  among  them,  frankly  reproves  their  faults, 
speaks  as  one  having  authority ;  not  appealing  to 
prejudice  or  flattering  self-love.  The  voice  of  the 
Spirit  of  Jesus  in  external  authority  is  instantly  an- 
swered by  that  of  the  same  Spirit  in  the 
loving  loyalty  of  true  Christians. 

It  was  the  purpose  of  the  Master  to 
excite  curiosity  about  the  meaning  of 
this  allegory,  and  thus 
to  lengthen  the    pro- 
cess   and   deepen  the 
effect  of  His  teach- 
ing :     * '  This    pro- 
verb Jesus  spoke  to 
them ;  but 
1  they     un- 
der stood 
not    what 
He  spoke 
«•  They  know  his  voice."  to 


THE  SHEPHERD  AND  THE  SHEEP.  423 

Jesus  therefore  said  to  them  again,  Amen,  Amen,  I  say 
to  you,  I  am  the  door  of  the  sheep.  All  others,  as  many 
as  have  come,  are  thieves  and  robbers,  and  the  sheep 
heard  them  not."  John  the  Baptist  had  been  the 
porter  stationed  by  God  at  that  door,  proclaiming 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  the  Messias.  The  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  would  not  enter  by  this  door,  but  climbed 
up  another  way.  The  sheep,  the  people,  heard  not 
these  false  leaders,  or  if  they  did,  it  was  to  be  torn 
by  hatred,  divided  into  factions,  and  finally  ruined 
and  scattered  among  the  nations  as  a  flock  of  sheep 
among  wild  beasts.  Has  not  this  been  the  pasture 
into  which  the  Pharisees  led  those  Israelites  who  re- 
jected Jesus  Christ? 

"  I  am  the  door,"  He  continues.  "By  Me,  if  any 
man  enter  in,  he  shall  be  saved,  and  he  shall  go  in 
and  go  out,  and  shall  find  pastures.  The  thief  cometh 
not  but  for  to  steal  and  to  kill  and  to  destroy.  I  am 
come  that  they  may  have  life,  and  may  have  it  more 
abundantly." 

Thus  does  our  Saviour  sum  up  the  reason  of 
shepherd  and  sheepfold.  The  sheep  must  have 
pasture,  and  they  must  also  have  a  shepherd  and  a 
sheepfold.  The  pasture,  the  rich  grass  on  the  fertile 
hill-sides  and  in  the  pleasant  valleys,  and  the  clear 
water  of  the  running  brook — what  would  these  be 
good  for  if  wolves  and  thieves  were  free  of  the  flock  ? 
Shelter  and  defence  are  needed  that  the  pasture  may 
be  enjoyed.  So  with  the  men  and  women  of  Christ's 
flock.  Their  life  is  the  knowledge  and  the  love  of 
Jesus  Christ  more  and  more  abundantly  enjoyed.  The 
Church  of  Christ  is  the  fold,  the  shelter  of  the  peo- 
ple from  error  and  vice;  the  ministry  of  the  Church 
is  Christ's  company  of  shepherds  to  guard  them. 
And  apart  from  all  figures  of  speech,  the  Divine  Spirit 


424 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


within  the  Christian's  soul  continually  demands  the 
same  Divine  Spirit  in  an  external  brotherhood  as 
a  safeguard  of  its  own  inner  life — a  criterion  and  test 
of  the  validity  of  its  inward  guidance ;  just  as  the 
soul  of  man  craves  a  voice  to  speak  to  his  breth- 
ren and  an  ear  to  hear  their  voices  in  reply.  Both 
orders  of  life  must  be  divine,  a  divine  interior  life 
united  to  its  divine  expression  in  the  Christian 
Church. 


"One  fold  and  one  Shepherd." 


••/  AM  THE  GOOD  SHEPHERD: 


425 


CHAPTER  LXI. 

I   AM    THE    GOOD    SHEPHERD.' 
John  X.    11-21. 


kHKN  Jesus  said :  "  I  am  the  Good  Shep- 
herd; the  Good  Shepherd  giveth  His 
life  for  His  sheep."  Life,  reputa- 
tion, friends — all  were  freely  given 
by  Jesus  for  us.  Little  did  that 
multitude,  including  every  diverse 
character  in  Israel,  and  even  a  scattering  of  Romans, 
Greeks,  and  other  pagans,  dream  of  the  heroic  love 
which  thrilled  the  soul  of  Jesus  as  He  spoke  those 
memorable  words,  "  I  am  the  Good  Shepherd."  He 
continued  in  His  usual  style  of  contrasting  opposites  : 
"  But  the  hireling,  and  he  that  is  not  the  shep- 
herd, whose  own  the  sheep  are  not,  seeth  the  wolf 
coming,  and  leaveth  the  sheep  and  flieth,  and  the 
wolf  catcheth  and  scattereth  the  sheep.  And  the 
hireling  flieth  because  he  is  a  hireling,  and.  he  hath 
no  care  for  the  sheep." 


426 


"  I  KNOW  MINE  AND    MINE  KNOW  ME." 

I  am  the  Good  Shepherd ;  the  good 
shepherd  giveth  his  life  for  the  sheep. 
But  the  hireling,  and  he  that  is  not  the 
shepherd,  whose  own  the  sheep  are  not, 
seeth  the  wolf  coming,  and  leaveth  the 
sheep  and  flieth,  and  the  wolf  catcheth 
and  scattereth  the  sheep.  And  the  hireling 
flieth  because  he  is  a  hireling,  and  he  hath 
no  care  for  the  sheep.  I  am  the  Good 
Shepherd,  and  I  know  mine,  and  mine 
know  me.  As  the  Father  knoweth  me,  and 
I  know  the  Father ;  and  I  lay  down  my 
life  for  my  sheep.  And  other  sheep  I  have 
that  are  not  of  this  fold  ;  them  also  I  must 
bring,  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice,  and 
there  shall  be  one  fold  and  one  Shepherd. 
Therefore  doth  the  Father  love  me,  be- 
cause I  lay  down  my  life,  that  I  may  take 
it  again.  No  man  taketh  it  away  from 
me,  but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself,  and  I 
have  power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have 
power  to  take  it  up  again.  This  com- 
mandment have  I  received  from  my  Father. 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Jesus  meant  the  Jewish  priesthood 
of  that  day,  bought  and  sold  for 
money  and  for  place,  cringing  to 
pagan  authority,  dealing  double  with 
the  people,  caring  nothing  for  their 
spiritual  life,  and  about  to  make 
themselves  eternally  infamous  by 
putting  the  Good  Shepherd  to  death. 
And  He  meant,  of  course,  all  others 
in  all  ages  placed  as  shepherds  of 
souls,  as  parents  or  pastors,  and  who 
for  money,  or  social  place,  or  craven 
fear  of  men  betray  their  charge  to 
heretics  or  to  the  devil-shepherds 
of  lust  or  drunkenness  or  sloth  or 


avarice. 

How  close  is  His  personal  union  with  His  beloved 
Jesus  tells  in  the  succeeding  words  of  this  most 
solemn  discourse,  which  recalls  His  description  of  the 
Kucharistic  union.  It  is  the  inter- consciousness  of 
two  spirits  of  each  other's  presence  in  one  blended 
double  personality,  only  to  be  fully  understood  when 
we  know  the  union  of  the  Son  and  the  Father  in 
Heaven.  "  I  am  the  Good  Shepherd,  and  I  know 
Mine,  and  Mine  know  Me.  As  the  Father  knoweth 
Me,  and  I  know  the  Father."  And  what  is  the 
seal  of  this  union  ?  It  is  stamped  into  our  souls  by 
the  cross  steeped  in  His  life-blood.  For  He  says : 
"And  I  lay  down  My  life  for  My  sheep." 

Then  His  heart  expanded  towards  the  Gentiles, 
that  immense  flock  straying  away  from  Him  without 
a  shepherd,  a  prey  to  every  imposture,  superstition, 
and  vice.  He  would  give  them  God  for  their  Father, 
Himself  for  their  brother,  His  Spirit  as  the  seed  of 
everlasting  life,  His  Church  as  a  safe  and  happy 


"7  AM  THE  GOOD   SHEPHERD."  427 

sheepfold :  "And  other  sheep  I  have  that  are  not 
of  this  fold;  them  also  I  must  bring,  and  they  shall 
hear  My  voice,  and  there  shall  be  one  fold  and  one 
Shepherd."  And  ever  after  that  and  until  this  day 
does  Jesus  stir  our  hearts  with  zeal  for  His  other 
sheep,  and  raise  up  missionaries  to  bring  them  into  the 
one  fold,  under  the  loving  care  of  the  one  Shepherd  : 
missionary  priests  who  pierce  the  triple  armor  of 
heathendom  by  their  zeal  and  often  by  their  martyr- 
dom :  missionary  sisters,  who  save  the  forsaken  chil- 
dren and  the  plague- stricken  men  and  women  of  pagan 
nations,  and  train  up  new  generations  to  know 
and  love  the  Good  Shepherd.  Missionary  men  and 
women  of  the  laity  whose  edifying  lives  are  the 
authentication  of  their  earnest  words  of  truth  to  their 
friends  and  relatives  outside  the  one  fold.  May  the 
Good  Shepherd  multiply  all  these  various  kinds  of 
missionaries  and  deepen  their  spirit  of  sacrifice  for  the 
lost  sheep,  according  to  His  own  words,  as  He  closed 
this  heart-filling  sermon:  "Therefore  doth  the  Father 
love  Me,  because  I  lay  down  My  life  that  I  may 
take  it  again."  In  what  spirit?  In  that  of  freedom, 
not  by  any  dread  fatality,  but  by  free  choice  does 
Jesus  die  for  His  beloved  :  * '  No  man  taketh  it  away 
from  Me,  but  I  lay  it  down  of  Myself,  and  I  have 
power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it 
up  again."  Such  is  the  Spirit  of  the  Cross,  and  such 
is  the  only  constraint  laid  upon  its  Hero :  '  *  This 
commandment  have  I  received  from  My  Father." 

As  Jesus  departed  from  the  scene  of  this  long  and 
eventful  debate,  He  left  His  friends  and  enemies  still 
contending:  "Many  of  the  Jews  said:  He  hath  a 
devil  and  is  mad.  Why  hear  you  Him?  Others 
said,  These  are  not  the  words  of  one  that  hath  a 
devil.  Can  a  devil  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind  ?  " 


428  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER   LXII. 

THK   GOOD   SAMARITAN. 

Luke  x.  25-37. 

NOUGH  had  been  done  for  the  city  of  Jerusalem 
for  the  present.  Jesus  passed  out  of  its  eastern  gate 
with  the  last  lingering  pilgrims  of  the  Feast  of 
Tabernacles,  and  took  His  way  with  His  disciples 
towards  Jericho  and  the  Jordan,  intending  to  cross 
into  the  Perea.  He  left  after  Him  a  deposit  of  truth 
of  the  highest  order.  He  had  proclaimed  Himself  the 
Shepherd  of  Israel  and  of  the  nations,  the  Light 
of  the  world,  the  Fountain  of  living  water,  the  Kternal 
I  Am.  Now,  in  passing  eastward  He  would  spread 
the  Glad  Tidings  in  a  portion  of  Israel  as  yet  un- 
visited  by  Him  except  in  passing  between  the  city 
and  His  home  in  Galilee. 

A  Scribe,  a  doctor  of  the  law  of  Moses,  had  fol- 
lowed Him  quietly,  with  no  evil  purpose  indeed,  but 
yet  unconvinced.  Probably  it  was  as  the  caravan 
rested  upon  the  road  to  Jericho  that  He  made  bold 
to  ask  Jesus  a  question,  a  most  vital  one,  indeed, 
but  asked  with  the  motive  of  drawing  our  Saviour  out 
rather  than  of  humbly  receiving  instruction  :  ' '  Master, 
what  must  I  do  to  possess  eternal  life  ?  "  Taking  him 
according  to  his  profession,  our  Saviour  answered, 
"  What  is  written  in  the  Law?  How  readest  thou?  " 
The  Scribe's  response  indicates  that  he  had  learned  the 
law  to  some  purpose,  and  had  even  made  progress  in 
the  Spirit  of  the  New  Law.  He  did  not  name  in  his 
reply  any  of  the  external  observances,  even  those  of 
plain  divine  ordination  as  the  means  of  eternal  life — 
he  went  straight  to  the  root :  '  *  He  answering  said, 
Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  thy  whole 


THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN. 


429 


heart  and  with  thy  whole  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  strength,  and  with  all 
thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self" (Deuteronomy  vi.  5).  It  was 
the  custom  of  the  Jews  to  carry  favor- 
ite texts  of  Scripture  written  on  bits 
of  parchment  hung  in  a  rich  setting, 
like  an  amulet,  around  the  neck. 
Perhaps  this  was  our  scribe's  amulet 
and  he  read  it  off  to  Jesus.  The 
Master  was  pleased,  as  well  He 
might  be  :  "And  He  said  to  him  : 
Thou  hast  answered  right ;  this  do 
and  thou  shalt  live."  L,ove  is  life  ; 
the  seed  of  life  and  the  fruit  of  life  is 
lovingly  to  rejoice  in  God's  majesty 
and  goodness,  joyfully  to  advance 
His  interests,  to  be  made  one  with 
Him  in  conscious  union  of  thought 
and  purpose,  and  thus  to  secure 
eternal  life.  This  also  means  love 
for  men:  the  purpose  to  make  all 
other  men  equal  partakers  of  this 
our  joy  in  God  and  of  every  spiritual 
and  temporal  good. 

The  question  asked  had  been  a  most  weighty  one, 
and  had  received  a  perfect  answer. 
Now    came    something    different. 
The  eternal  race  problem  rose 
like  an  ill-laid  ghost.    The 
Scribe     was    a    Jew,    and 
Jesus? — a  Jew  indeed,  but 
was     He     a    loyal    Jew  ? 

This  was  one  of  the  perplexing  questions  of  the      "^s 
hour.     Did  Jesus  stand  loyally  by  the  exclusive     «  Leaving  him  half  dead," 


"AND  WHO  is  MY  NEIGHBOR?" 
And  behold  a  certain  lawyer  stood  up 
tempting  him  and  saying:  Master,  what 
must  I  do  to  possess  eternal  life  ?  But  he 
said  to  him  :  What  is  written  in  the  law  ? 
How  readest  thou  ?  He  answering  said  : 
Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  thy 
•whole  heart  and  with  thy  whole  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy 
mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  And 
he  said  to  him :  Thou  hast  answered 
right ;  this  do  and  thou  shalt  live.  But  he, 
willing  to  justify  himself,  said  to  Jesus  : 
And  who  is  my  neighbor?  And  Jesus  an- 
swering, said :  A  certain  man  went  down 
from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho  and  fell  among 
robbers,  who  also  stripped  him,  and  having 
wounded  him,  went  away,  leaving  him  half 
dead.  And  it  chanced  that  a  certain  priest 
went  down  the  same  way,  and  seeing  him, 
passed  by.  In  like  manner  also  a  Levite, 
when  he  was  near  the  place  and  saw  him, 
passed  by.  But  a  certain  Samaritan,  be- 
ing on  his  journey,  came  near  him,  and 
seeing  him  was  moved  with  compassion. 
And  going  up  to  him  he  bound  up  his 
wounds,  pouring  in  oil  and  wine,  and  set- 
ting him  upon  his  own  beast,  brought 
him  to  an  inn  and  took  care  of  him.  And 
the  next  day  he  took  out  two  pence  and 
gave  to  the  host,  and  said  :  Take  care  of 
him,  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  spend  over 
and  above,  I,  at  my  return,  will  repay 
thee.  Which  of  these  three,  in  thy  opin- 
ion, was  neighbor  to  him  that  fell  among 
robbers  ?  But  he  said :  He  that  showed 
mercy  to  him.  And  Jesus  said  to  him : 
Go,  and  do  thou  in  like  manner. 


up 


430 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


1  Setting  him  upon  his  own  beast. 


claims  of  His  race  ?  Upon  the  term 
* '  neighbor  ' '  used  in  the  quotation  from 
the  Law  the  Scribe  determined  to  pivot 
the  Master's  explanation.  He  was  no 
doubt  conscious  of  his  own  racial  nar- 
rowness, but  wishing  to  justify  himself 
he  said  to  Jesus :  '  *  And  who  is  my 
neighbor?"  Little  did  he  dream  that 
he  was  preparing  an  amulet  of  brother- 
ly love  which  the  noblest  men  and 
women  of  the  whole  race  of  Adam 
would  proudly  wear  as  a  necklace  of 
heavenly  pearls  till  the  end  of  time: 
the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan. 
Jesus  did  not  search  for  this  in  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures ;  He  opened  the 
book  of  His  own  heart. 

Count  all  the  rich  treasures  in  this 
little  parable.  It  teaches  that  all  men 
are  brethren ;  that  high  office  is  not  necessarily  high 
virtue ;  that  we  should  be  humble  enough  to  learn 
the  practice  of  virtue  from  all  kinds  of  people  ;  that 
in  religious  minds  the  term  neighbor  is  to  be  elevated 
to  teach  religious  affection ;  that  we  should  not  leave 
to  others  the  offices  of  charity  that  Providence  im- 
poses on  ourselves  ;  that  when  a  good  work  is  start- 
ed it  should  be  carried  on  to  perfect  fulfilment;  that 
one  may  make  a  course  of  theology  and  miss  the 
homely  virtues  on  which  it  is  based;  that  the  first 
instinct  of  compassion  is  to  be  cherished  and  obeyed, 
and  its  final  impulses  resolutely  carried  out ;  that 
one  can  learn  good  lessons  of  theology  by  going 
to  school  to  his  own  heart ;  that  there  are  hier- 
archies of  official  dignity  and  others  of  divine  loveli- 
ness. These  are  the  lights  from  above  which  tinted 


MAR  Y  AND  MAR  TffA.  431 

the  air  as  Jesus  sat  and  taught  the  meaning  of '  *  Thou 
shalt  love   thy  neighbor   as  thyself." 

Inspired  by  this  teaching  the  Good  Samaritan's 
beast  has  grown  into  many  caravans  of  charity,  and 
every  road  in  the  world  has  its  gentle  watchers  to 
succor  the  fallen  and  the  destitute;  his  two  pence 
have  increased  into  many  millions  of  money  yearly 
spent  in  solacing  every  wound  of  man. 


CHAPTER 

MARY   AND   MARTHA. 

Luke  x.  38-4.2. 

BETHANY,  a  village  less  than  an  hour's  journey 
eastward  from  Jerusalem,  was  the  home  of  the  sisters 
Mary  and  Martha,  and  I^azarus  their  brother.  They 
were  persons  of  some  note,  and  perhaps  Jesus  had  al- 
ready found  comfort  in  their  society  during  short 
intervals  of  rest  snatched  from  His  recent  struggles 
with  His  enemies  at  the  Temple.  It  was  either  be- 
fore or  after  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  that 
our  Saviour's  little  party  was  entertained  by  this 
family.  Mary  of  Bethany,  it  is  commonly  believed, 
is  the  same  as  Mary  of  Magdala,  the  converted  harlot. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  into  the  reasons  for  this 
belief,  one  which  in  the  traditions  of  the  Church 
and  the  devotions  of  the  people  has  been  almost 
universal  and  immemorial. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  when  the  foul  tide 
of  vice  has  receded  from  a  soul  it  discloses  a  spiritual 
soil  of  great  fruitfulness.  Penitents  have  often  shown 
that  however  low  their  degradation  had  been  in  sin, 
their  elevation  in  virtue  is  proportionately  high. 

So  in  Mary  of  Bethany  :  it  was  as  if  some  malarious 


432  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

swamp  had  been  drained  and  its  poisonous  vapors 
exchanged  for  a  rich  harvest.  By  nature  she  was  a 
singular  mixture  of  sensual  weakness  and  spiritual 
percepti veness,  just  as  we  have  poets  whose  private 
lives  are  those  of  beasts  and  whose  poems  are  the 
flights  of  angels.  By  the  love  of  Christ  Mary  had 
wholly  conquered  sensuality,  entirely  overcome  her 
inferior  nature ;  everything  was  now  absorbed  in  the 
contemplation  of  the  loveliness  of  God,  especially  as 
revealed  in  the  God-Man  Jesus  Christ. 

Martha,  on  the  other  hand,  was  always  pure  and 
never  contemplative — a  busy,  zealous,  active  soul, 
thoughtful  of  the  comfort  of  all  and  also  thoughtful 
of  their  obligations  ;  a  type  of  the  domestic  virtues 
of  woman,  of  that  hospitable,  teaching,  correcting, 
loving,  and  edifying  being  who  is  to  the  world  and 
its  people  the  average  and  regular  force  which  moves 
the  family  machinery  of  life.  Higher  than  this  is  the 
contemplative  soul,  This  soul  is  the  reservoir  from 
which  the  collected  waters  of  wisdom  are  drawn  by 
more  active  spirits.  Simple  receptivity  of  God  is  a 
higher  trait  than  busy  questioning  about  God.  But 
we  know  that  a  happy  combination  of  both  docility 
and  activity  is  best. 

The  reader  will  remember  that  Mary  first  appears 
in  Galilee,  at  a  banquet  near  or  in  Magdala,  on  the 
shore   of   L,ake   Genesareth.     While    leading   her  life 
of  shame  she  was  far  away,  therefore,   from  her  home, 
as  was  natural  she   should    wish    to   be.      After    her 
repentance  she  was  a  follower  of    Jesus.     Perhaps  it 
was  by  His  kindly  intervention  that  I^azarus  and 
Martha  had  consented  to  receive  the  poor  penitent 
back  to  their  home.     And  perhaps,  again,  it  was 

"Sitting  at  the  Lord's      a   last  linSering   sentiment  of  offended   womanly 
fe«t.'»  chastity  that  spoke  out    in    Martha's  impatience 


-  MARY  AND  MARTHA. 


433 


"  Martha  was  busy  about  much  serving." 

at  Mary  "  sitting  at  the  Lord's  feet,"  and  only  listen- 
ing.  In  this  view,  the  virtue  of  Martha  in  meekly 
and  silently  submitting  to  her  poor  sister's  praise  by 
Jesus  is  all  the  more  noteworthy. 

But  the  chief  lesson  of  this  beautiful  incident,  as 
we  have  already  said,  is  that  the  superior  life  of  man 
is  in  communicating  with  God,  and  that  the  state  of 
contemplation  gives  the  best  aid  to  that  of  active 
obedience ;  or  rather,  that  the  two  must  in  every 


434 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


soul  be  blended  into  one  unitive 
state,  the  more  important  element 
being  the  contemplation  which  pre- 
cedes and  characterizes  action. 

Another  lesson,  and  one  of  very 
practical  bearing,  is  that  genuine 
repentance  brings  with  it  fitness  for 
the  highest  honor  bestowed  on  in- 
nocence itself.  Martha  thought 
otherwise.  She  never  dreamed  that 
preference  was  due  to  her  sister 
over  herself  because  she  could  pray 
better,  or  that  a  fallen  woman  could  ever  be  lifted 
by  penance  or  anything  else  to  religious  equality 
with  a  virtuous  one  ;  she  must  have  been  amazed  that 
her  tainted  sister  was  raised  even  higher  than  her- 
self. 


THE   BEST    PART. 

Now  it  came  to  pass  as  they  went,  that 
he  entered  into  a  certain  town :  and  a  cer- 
tain woman  named  Martha  received  him 
into  her  house.  And  she  had  a  sister 
called  Mary,  who  sitting  also  at  the  Lord's 
feet,  heard  his  word.  But  Martha  was 
busy  about  much  serving.  Who  stood 
and  said:  Lord,  hast  thou  no  care  that 
my  sister  hath  left  me  alone  to  serve  ? 
speak  to  her  therefore,  that  she  help  me. 
And  the  Lord,  answering,  said  to  her : 
Martha,  Martha,  thou  art  careful,  and  art 
troubled  about  many  things.  But  one 
thing  is  necessary.  Mary  hath  chosen  the 
best  part,  which  shall  not  be  taken  away 
from  her. 


SITE  OF  HOUSE  OF  MARY  AND  MARTHA. 


THE  LORD'S  PRA  YER.  435 

CHAPTER   LXIV. 

JESUS   TEACHES    HIS   DISCIPLES    HOW  TO    PRAY. — THE 
LORD'S   PRAYER. 

Matt.  vi.  9-13  ;  vii.  j-n  ;  Luke  xi.  1—13. 

LYING  between  Bethany  and  Jerusalem  was  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  our  Saviour's  chosen  refuge  for 
prayer,  as  well  as  for  His  more  intimate  conferences 
with  the  disciples.  There  in  the  hours  of  the  night, 
the  darkness  deepened  by  the  shadows  of  the  olive- 
trees,  Jesus  communed  with  His  Father,  and  with  the 
angels.  Perhaps  it  was  on  his  way  to  Bethany,  after 
one  of  these  spiritual  retreats,  that  the  Apostles  said 
to  Him,  "Lord,  teach  us  to  pray."  This  is  the  most 
practical  side  of  all  Christ's  teaching,  prayer  being 
the  primeval  means  of  union  with  the  Deity.  As  the 
apprentice  learns  first  the  use  of  tools,  so  does  the 
Christian  learn  how  to  pray.  And  as  the  boy  in 
the  workshop  looks  at  his  master  and  wonders  at 
his  dextrous  handling  of  the  tools  and  asks  to  be 
taught  it,  so  acted  the  Apostles  with  our  Saviour. 
They  saw  Him  enter  the  shadows,  His  brow  clouded 
with  trouble  and  His  eye  restless ;  His  soul  was 
wrought  to  anger  or  depressed  with  melancholy  after 
His  conflicts ;  and  His  listless  step  and  darkened  face 
showed  this.  But  when  He  came  forth  again  He  was 
restored.  His  head  was  erect,  consolation  and  peace 
rested  upon  His  countenance,  His  eye  kindled  with 
gentle  fire,  and  His  heart  throbbed  with  courage.  He 
had  been  engaged  in  prayer.  St.  Luke  tells  us  what 
happened  on  one  of  these  occasions :  * '  And  it  came 
to  pass  that  as  He  was  in  a  certain  place  praying, 
when  He  ceased,  one  of  His  disciples  said  to  Him  : 
Lord,  teach  us  to  pray,  as  John  also  taught  his 


436  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

disciples."  Now,  Jesus  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
had  already  given  them  the  form  of  prayer  which 
is  peculiarly  His,  and  is  called  the  Lord's  Prayer  ; 
but  He  gave  it  to  them  again.  Perhaps  the  Apostles, 
like  many  after  them,  wanted  some  easy  routine  into 
which  an  indolent  soul  might  slip  and  pray  as  one 
moves  in  a  groove — which  would  make  prayer  take 
care  of  itself.  Jesus  knew  that  prayer  is  a  mental 
function  too  high  to  have  its  subtle  forces  harnessed 
by  any  one  set  of  methods.  "  Think  over  what  I 
say  to  you,"  we  might  interpret  Him — "  do  it  humbly 
and  with  attention,  and  you  will  have  the  fruit  of 
thought  with  God,  as  far  as  word  and  sentence  can 
give  it."  Just  as  a  set  of  harness  fetters  the  dull 
horse  and  helps  the  spirited  one,  so  does  a  form  of 
prayer  help  or  hinder  a  .soul. 

St.  Luke  and  St.  Matthew  give  the  Lord's  Prayer 
with  some  variations  as  the  Master  at  different  times 
taught  His  disciples  to  pray  by  its  means.  The  tra- 
ditional prayer  in  universal  use  is  a  blending  of  the  ver- 
sions of  both  Evangelists.  Its  excellence  is  supreme. 
It  is  a  summary  of  all  that  man  can  ask  and  God  can 
give.  Though  short,  it  is  not  too  much  condensed. 
The  Lord's  Prayer  is  like  an  essential  oil  whose  every 
drop  distributes  the  flavor  and  fragrance  of  the  deep 
flowing  streams  of  divine  union. 

1  'When  you  pray,  say,  Our  Father,  who  art  in 
Heaven."  There  is  fatherhood  and  brotherhood  in  this 
opening  sentence.  The  hateful  word  my  or  mine  is 
unknown  in  this  prayer.  The  human  soul,  now  lift- 
ing up  its  head  from  the  moral  slavery  in  which  it 
had  been  bound  for  so  many  ages,  salutes  the  Deity 
with  the  term  Father  as  the  common  Parent  of  all 
the  race  and  the  bond  of  its  new-found  brotherly 
unity.  Common  origin  should  mean  common  father- 


THE  LORD'S  PRA  YER.  4$ 

hood.  Love  is  unitive,  and  as  it  seeks  union  with 
God  its  Father,  it  invites  union  with  man  its  brother. 
The  one  love  measures  the  other.  The  key  of  Heaven 
is  the  word  of  love,  love  for  God  and  man  alike. 
This  is  the  new  prayer ;  for  in  the  Old  Testament 
but  once  is  God  named  distinctly  as  Father  (Isaias 
Ixiii.  16),  and  then  only  of  the  race  of  Israel,  not 
of  each  one  personally  ;  though  oftener  called  Father 
as  a  figure  of  speech  (Psalm  cii.  13).  The  Incar- 
nation of  the  Son  of  God  has  made  the  divine  father- 
hood the  personal  heritage  of  every  member  of  the 
human  race  "who  is  born  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the 
will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  man,  but  of  God."  And  this 
Father  is  of  the  heavens,  an  eternal  Father,  an  all 
powerful  Father,  all  wise,  all  loving. 

The  ford's  Prayer,  after  this  opening  salutation  to 
the  Heavenly  Father,  is  divided  into  a  first  group  of 
three  petitions,  embodying  what  we  crave  from  God 
strictly  as  His  children — as  if  earnestly  seeking  our 
Father's  honor  in  Heaven  above  and  on  earth  below. 
The  second  group,  also  of  three  petitions,  concerns  our 
personal  needs.  These  are  all  permeated  by  the  spirit 
of  the  introductory  phrase,  our  Father  :  childlike  con- 
fidence in  God  and  loving  brotherhood  with  man. 
The  whole  Gospel  of  Christ  is  against  self-glory,  self- 
interest,  self-will,  and  self-indulgence  ;  that  Gospel  is 
summarized  in  the  petitions  of  the  Lord's  Prayer. 

"Hallowed  be  Thy  Name"  is  a  prayer  for  God's 
glory.  As  the  Apostles  and  disciples  gazed  upon 
Jesus,  and  heard  Him  say  this  word,  they  remembered 
the  many  times  He  had  referred  to  His  Father  as  the 
source  of  all  His  life.  He  was  the  Father's  man 
totally,  the  Father's  choice  for  Messias,  the  Father's 
echo  for  doctrine  ;  and  they  had  begun  to  understand 
the  wonderful  truth  that  He  was  actually  the  Father's 


438  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

other  self.  Such  a  being  could  but  be  absorbed  in 
advancing  the  glory  of  the  Father's  name.  To  be 
like  Christ  is  to  be  God's  man  totally,  God's  choice 
for  every  vocation  of  life,  the  Father's  echo  for  word 
and  teaching,  and  made  one  with  the  Father  through 
adoption  of  Sonship  in  Jesus  Christ.  Where,  then,  is 
the  room  for  self-glory? 

"  Thy  Kingdom  come,"  is  a  prayer  for  the  Church 
or  family  of  God.  The  Church  is  the  extension  of 
the  Son  of  God  into  the  open  life  of  men  so  as  the 
better  to  honor  the  Heavenly  Father  publicly,  and  to 
save  men  privately  and  one  by  one.  The  Kingdom 
of  God  is  in  Heaven,  where  He  reigns  with  His  angels; 
it  is  also  within  each  soul,  for  He  has  His  throne- 
room  in  our  consciences.  These  two  kingdoms  re- 
quire a  medium,  a  junction  upon  earth.  Men  need  a 
novitiate  for  the  eternal  kingdom  above ;  and  they  also 
need  an  outward  guarantee  for  the  validity  of  the 
inner  kingdom  of  inspiration  and  of  conscience.  The 
Apostles,  as  they  repeated  this  prayer  after  our  Lord 
and  learned  it  by  heart,  knew  that  He  had  constituted 
them  princes  of  His  public  spiritual  kingdom,  that 
He  had  made  it  a  true  incorporated  society.  Men  are 
made  to  be  taught,  and  He  who  so  made  them  makes 
His  Church  their  school  and  His  Apostles  and  their 
successors  their  teachers.  Men  are  made  for  fellow- 
ship, and  He  who  so  made  them  has  given  them  a 
fellowship,  a  brotherhood.  The  school  of  Christ  and 
His  brotherhood  is  His  Church.  Many  a  time  has 
He  spoken  of  its  power  and  holiness,  and  of  these 
Apostles  as  its  ministry,  and  often  will  He  do  so  again 
in  yet  more  emphatic  terms.  He  who  prays  with  the 
brethren  for  God's  kingdom  prays  for  His  Church. 

"  Thy  will  be  done  on   earth   as  it  is  in   Heaven." 
This  is  what  Christ  is  for — to  do  the  will  of  His  Father 


THE  LORD'S  PRA  YER.  439 

and  our  Father.  This  is  what  His  Church  is  for — to 
help  us  to  be  like  Christ  in  doing  the  will  of  His 
Father  and  ours.  That  will  is  all  powerful,  yet  it 
is  so  bent  towards  us  by  a  father's  love  that  He 
conditions  it  upon  our  loving  acceptance ;  and  its 
triumph  upon  our  prayer  and  co-operation.  When  we 
use  the  word  ze/z7/wemean  intention,  motive,  purpose, 
design.  This  clause  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  takes  God's 
will  as  it  is  the  one  rule  of  Paradise,  and  would 
impose  it  for  all  time  upon  all  the  motives,  intentions, 
purposes,  and  designs  of  the  heart  of  every  man.  It 
is  the  divine  and  human  life  made  one.  We  pray 
that  we  may  so  mean  to  act  and  so  will  to  act  that 
we  shall  obey  Christ  with  the  instinctive  obedience 
of  the  angels  who  minister  to  Him.  To  live  by  the 
instinct  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  to  have  the  will  of  God 
reign  in  us  on  earth  as  it  does  in  Heaven. 

These  are  the  divine  petitions  of  the  prayer — to 
have  God  known  as  our  Father,  honored  and  obeyed 
as  the  one  Heavenly  Master,  by  all  men  on  earth  as 
He  is  by  all  angels  and  saints  in  heaven.  Then  fol- 
low the  human  petitions.  These  deal  with  the  ob- 
stacles to  man's  union  with  God,  and  the  human 
means  for  its  attainment. 

"Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread"  Here  is  incul- 
cated, as  we  at  once  perceive,  the  complete  abandon- 
ment of  the  Christian  to  God's  providence.  For  his 
human  wants  no  less  than  for  divine  grace,  for  his 
food,  clothing,  shelter,  and  that  of  those  whom  he 
loves,  he  must  rely  wholly  upon  God.  One  day's 
provision  is  enough  to  ask  for ;  it  is  the  only  day 
we  have  :  as  to  the  next  one,  we  know  it  is  to  be  the 
gift  of  the  same  loving  Father  who  gave  this ;  let  it 
be  wholly  His  gift,  not  even  suggested  to  Him.  No 
day  begins  before  its  own  first  hour.  When  that 


440  LIFE  OF  JESVS  CHRIST. 

strikes  I  will  begin  to  pray  for  the  present  day's 
wants.  God  will  look  to  the  wants  of  the  future. 
The  Christian  must  learn  how  to  profit  by  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  present  moment.  What  is  more  than  this 
is  yearning  for  empty  futurity,  or  regret  for  the  dead 
past.  We  may  beg  God's  favor  in  general  terms  for 
the  future,  or,  most  submissively,  for  particular  needs, 
especially  of  a  spiritual  kind.  But  sufficient  for  the 
day  is  the  evil  thereof. 

' '  Forgive  us  our  trespasses •,  as  we  forgive  those  who 
trespass  against  us."  This  is  a  way  of  bargaining  with 
God.  By  it  we  give  Him  evidence  of  our  love  for  His 
own  favorite  attribute,  mercy  to  sinners,  that  "which 
is  above  all  His  works."  It  is  also  an  imprecation  of 
the  divine  wrath  upon  ourselves  in  case  we  are  hard- 
hearted to  those  who  have  done  us  wrong.  How  fell 
a  dignity  is  here  given  to  human  hate,  since  of  all 
the  vices  it  alone  is  distinctly  named  by  our  L,ord  as 
the  hindrance  to  divine  pardon ;  and  its  opposite,  the 
virtue  of  easy  forgiveness,  is  stamped  as  the  true  coin 
to  offer  as  our  own  ransom.  Those  who  know  men 
best  will  bear  witness  that  avarice,  which  is  the 
opposite  of  the  prayer  for  daily  bread,  and  unwill- 
ingness to  forgive  injuries  received,  which  is  the 
opposite  of  the  profession  in  the  succeeding  petition, 
are  vices  which  if  outranked  by  such  crimes  as  blas- 
phemy, or  sacrilege,  or  lust,  are  yet  gangrened  with 
a  poison  more  quickly  assimilated  by  the  soul  than 
any  other.  Meantime  the  Creator  will  not  be  outdone 
in  generosity  by  His  creature.  Whosoever  is  quick 
to  pardon,  soon  becomes  a  beneficiary  of  Heaven  for 
every  favor  he  may  beg. 

"  And  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  bid  deliver  us  from 
evil.  Amen."  This  is  but  one  petition.  The  word 
and  at  the  beginning  and  but  in  the  middle  show 


THE  LORD'S  PRA  YER. 


441 


this.  It  is  a  note  of  self -warning  and  a  prayer  for 
preservation.  The  weakness  of  our  nature,  known 
from  bitter  experience,  is  able  to  cry  to  God  for  as- 
sistance, not  frantically,  nor  yet  presumptuously,  but 
calmly  and  courageously.  Saint  Philip  Neri's  morn- 
ing prayer  contained  this  petition:  ''Lord,  keep  Thy 
hand  upon  Philip  this  day,  or  Philip  will  betray  Thee." 
If  the  saints  are  self-distrustful,  it  is  because  they 
know  human  nature,  and  take  the  conclusion  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer  in  the  practical  sense. 

What  a  masterpiece  is  this  divine  prayer !  Who 
ever  composed  a  song  or  made  a  statue  whose  beauty 
wears  like  that  of  this  simple  prayer  ?  How  well  it 
shows  the  harmony  of  human  and  divine  things  in  the 
great  soul  of  Jesus !  It  places  us  with  God  at  the 
side  of  Jesus  as  God's  children,  and  it  brings  God 
down  to  us  with  Jesus  as  our  loving 
Father  and  Redeemer.  To  say  this 


;ay 
Be 


prayer  rightly  and  frequently  is 
always  to  be  consciously  elevated 
in  spirit,  and  to  be  confident  that 
in  want  or  peril  God  our  Lord  is 
not  far  from  us. 

A  beautiful  illustration  closes  this 
great  lesson  of  prayer,  showing  the 
worth  of  eagerness  and  persistence 
in  our  petitions  to  our  Heavenly 
Father.  Importunity  offends  men 
and  pleases  God,  so  different  is 
God's  generosity  from  man's. 

There  is  a  touching  simplicity  in  the  six-fold  repeti- 
tion of  the  promise  to  answer  prayer.  Thus  men  act 
with  their  little  children.  When  they  promise  more  than 
the  little  ones  have  dreamed  of  receiving,  they  must 
tell  it  over  again  and  again  before  they  are  believed. 


IMPORTUNATE  PRAYER. 

And  he  said  to  them  :  Which  of  you  shall 
have  a  friend,  and  shall  go  to  him  at  mid- 
night, and  shall  say  to  him :  Friend,  lend 


me  three  loaves.  Because  a  friend  of  mine 
is  come  off  his  journey  to  me,  and  I  have 
not  what  to  set  before  him.  And  he  from 
within  should  answer  and  say  :  Trouble  me 
not,  the  door  is  now  shut,  and  my  children 
are  with  me  in  bed  ;  I  cannot  rise  and  give 
thee.  Yet  if  he  shall  continue  knocking,  I 
say  to  you,  although  he  will  not  rise  and  give 
him,  because  he  is  his  friend  ;  yet  because 
of  his  importunity  he  will  rise,  and  give 
him  as  many  as  he  needeth.  And  I  say  to 
you,  Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you  :  seek, 
and  you  shall  find  :  knock,  and  it  shall 
be  opened  to  you.  For  every  one  that 
asketh,  receiveth :  and  he  that  seeketh, 
findeth  :  and  to  him  that  knocketh,  it  shall 
be  opened. 


442  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Jesus  concludes  with  a  solution  of  a  difficulty,  that 
of  unanswered  prayer.  No  prayer  really  remains  un- 
answered ;  but  if  one  asks  God  for  what  would  hurt 
him,  he  receives  instead  what  would  help  him,  though 
he  may  not  see  it  in  that  way.  Many  a  one  prays 
to  be  released  from  pain  whose  very  salvation  depends 
on  patience  in  suffering:  "And  which  of  you  if^he 
ask  his  father  bread,  will  he  give  him  a  stone  ?  or  a 
fish,  will  he  for  a  fish  give  him  a  serpent?  Or  if  he 
shall  ask  an  egg,  will  he  reach  him  a  scorpion  ?  If 
you  then  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts 
to  your  children,  how  much  more  will  your  Father 
from  heaven  give  the  good  Spirit  to  them  that  ask 
Him?" 

Our  good  Father  will  not  only  hear  our  prayers, 
but  He  will  set  them  right,  discover  for  us  our  own 
best  mind,  give  it  the  truest  expression  by  the  in- 
spiration of  His  Spirit,  and  then  grant  more  than 
we  have  asked.  He  is  surely  the  best  judge  in  select- 
ing the  time  and  all  other  circumstances  which  will 
serve  us  best. 

Thus  passed  two  happy  months,  between  the  Feast 
of  Tabernacles  in  September  and  that  of  the  Dedica- 
tion of  the  Temple  in  December.  They  must  have 
been  among  the  happiest  of  the  Master's  public  life. 
He  was  near  a  welcome  solitude  for  prayer  and  con- 
templation and  communion  with  the  celestial  spirits 
on  Mount  Olivet ;  He  was  close  to  Bethany,  where  the 
two  holy  sisters,  Mary  and  Martha,  could  entertain 
Him  and  His  Apostles  in  a  home  of  all  cheerfulness 
and  affection ;  and  He  was  ever  free  to  instruct  His 
disciples  privately  either  in  that  house,  or  by  the 
pleasant  wayside  or  walking  in  the  fields.  Mean- 
time He  did  not  shrink  from  contemplating  His  ap- 
proaching death.  The  hills  and  valleys  were  brown 


THE  LORD'S  PRA  YER.  443 

with  the  autumnal  decay  which  told  Him  that  His 
earthly  life  was  drawing  to  its  close,  and  this  quickened 
His  purpose  to  complete  His  teaching.  His  Father's 
providence  held  off  His  enemies,  who,  besides,  were 
quieted  by  His  own  intermission  of  miracles,  which 
were  always  calculated  to  enrage  the  Pharisees. 
Excursions  were  often  made  by  the  Master  and  His 
disciples  into  the  surrounding  country,  and  the  people 
drawn  together  and  instructed. 

St.  Luke  gives  us  many  of  our  Lord's  discourses 
spoken  at  this  time,  most  of  them  almost  exact 
repetitions  of  those  delivered  in  Galilee  the  year 
before  and  related  in  St.  Matthew's  Gospel. 

St.  Luke  also  inserts  in  this  part  of  his  narra- 
tive various  other  teachings,  without  saying  when 
or  where  they  were  delivered.  It  was  a  custom  of 
Jesus  to  repeat  His  discourses  in  different  places, 
using  even  the  same  words,  doing  so  even  in  the 
same  places  upon  returning  again  to  them.  This 
deepened  the  impression  upon  the  people's  minds,  and 
made  their  knowledge  of  His  doctrine  more  accurate. 
It  also  gave  every  one  fully  to  understand  that  He 
had  a  stated  system  of  teaching,  simple  and  readily 
known,  but  also  exact,  and  that  His  purpose  was 
that  all  should  accurately  possess  themselves  of  it. 
Furthermore,  this  custom  imparted  to  His  Apostles 
in  a  thoroughly  practical  way  both  the  doctrine  and 
the  way  to  teach  it.  They  could  not  but  become 
proficient  after  hearing  over  and  over  again  the  same 
rules  of  conduct  laid  down  in  almost  verbal  repeti- 
tion, the  same  principles  of  faith,  and  the  same  out- 
lines of  their  organization  as  a  Church.  Our  Saviour 
by  this  means  wrote  His  Gospel  on  their  memories 
in  deep  and  unmistakable  characters.  It  was  thus 
that  He  was  the  author  of  that  oral  Gospel  which 


444  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

alone  was  used  by  the  Church  for  many  years  after 
the  Holy  Spirit  had  been  breathed  upon  it,  and 
which  still  remains  the  substance  and  fulness  of 
the  revelation  of  Christ,  holding  within  it  the  written 
Gospel  supplied  in  a  subsequent  inspiration  of  the 
Evangelists  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 


CHAPTER    LXV. 

THE  WATCHFUL  SERVANTS. — THE  THIEF  IN  THE  NIGHT. 
Luke  xii.  35-56. 

ACCORDING  to  our  Saviour,  the  true  antidote  to 
the  fear  of  death  is  a  constant  fitness  to  die.  For 
what  is  dreadful  in  death  ?  The  accounting  to  the 
Judge  which  instantly  follows ;  the  settlement  of  an 
eternal  fate.  Other  than  this  there  is  in  death  only 
pain  of  body  and  loss  of  earthly  joys.  Now,  pain 
worse  than  death  is  often  endured  for  a  silly  point 
of  honor  or  for  love  of  money ;  and  earthly  joys 
are,  in  the  spiritual  life,  like  intoxication,  lowering 
our  level  of  existence  and  always  followed  by  reaction. 
All  this  .the  Master  taught  His  Apostles ;  and  for 
nothing  do  we  thank  Him  more  affectionately  than 
for  His  help  to  resist  the  awful  dread  of  death  : 
"Let  your  loins  be  girt,  and  lamps  burning  in  your 
hands.  And  you  yourselves  like  to  men  who  wait 
for  their  lord,  when  lie  shall  return  from  the  wedding  : 
that  when  lie  cometh  and  knocketh,  they  may  open 
to  him  immediately.  Blessed  are  those  servants 
whom  the  Lord,  when  He  cometh,  shall  find  watch- 
ing. Amen  I  say  to  you,  that  He  will  gird  Him- 
self, and  make  them  sit  down  to  meat,  and  passing 
will  minister  unto  them.  And  if  He  shall  come  in  the 
second  watch,  or  come  in  the  third  watch,  and  find 


THE  WATCHFUL  SERVANTS. 


445 


them  so,  blessed  are  those  servants.  But  this  know 
ye,  that  if  the  householder  did  know  at  what  hour 
the  thief  would  come,  he  would  surely  watch,  and 
would  not  suffer  his  house  to  be  broken  open.  Be 
you,  then,  also  ready  :  for  at  what  hour  you  think 
not  the  Son  of  Man  will  come." 

It  seems  that  the  foregoing  lesson  had  been  given 
to  the  Apostles  when  alone  with  Jesus,  for  Peter 
asked:  "Lord,  dost  Thou  speak  this  parable  to  us, 
or  likewise  to  all?"  Doubtless  to  all,  both  as  to 
watchfulness  and  its  recompense.  But  it  was  in- 
tended in  an  especial  manner  for  those  who  shall 
stand  for  the  Lord  by  their  office,  or  by  high  posi- 
tion of  any  kind.  Such  are  parents,  the  clergy, 
civil  leaders  and  rulers  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  the  rich.  Office-holding  in 
church  or  state  or  family  is  a  bur- 
den of  responsibility,  therefore  a 
gift  of  grace  to  bear  the  burden  and 
strictness  of  accountability.  The 
Apostles  needed  this  lesson  of  hu- 
mility, too  often  forgotten  by  men 
and  women  in  high  places. 

He  added  a  frank  statement  of 
what  it  would  mean  to  be  an  Apos- 
tle, and  even  to  be  an  obscure  fol- 
lower of  the  Lord.  It  meant,  to  be- 
gin with,  three  hundred  years  of  in- 
describably cruel  persecution  ;  and 
in  all  succeeding  ages  it  has  meant 
an  incessant  struggle  of  reason 
against  rebellious  appetite,  of  faith 


WATCHFUL    SERVANTS. 

And  the  Lord  said  :  Who  (thinkest  thou) 
is  the'faithful  and  wise  steward,  whom  his 
lord  setteth  over  his  family,  to  give  them 
theit  measure  of  wheat  in  due  season  ? 
Blessed  is  that  servant,  whom  when  his 
lord  shall  come  he  shall  find  so  doing. 
Verily  I  say  to  you,  he  will  set  him  over 
all  that  hepossesseth.  But  if  that  servant 
shall  say  in  his  heart,  My  lord  is  long 
a  coming ;  and  shall  begin  to  strike  the 
men-servants  and  maid-servants,  and  to 
eat  and  to  drink,  and  be  drunk:  The  lord 
of  that  servant  will  come  in  the  day  that 
he  hopeth  not,  and  at  the  hour  that  he 
knoweth  not,  and  shall  separate  him,  and 
shall  appoint  him  his  portion  with  un- 
believers. And  that  servant  who  knew 
the  will  of  his  lord,  and  prepared  not  him- 
self,  and  did  not  according  to  his  will, 
shall  be  beaten  with  many  stripes.  But  he 
that  knew  not  and  did  things  worthy  of 
stripes,  shall  be  beaten  with  few  stripes. 
And  unto  whomsoever  much  is  given,  of 
him  much  shall  be  required  :  and  to  whom 
they  have  committed  much,  of  him  they 
will  demand  the  more. 


against  pride  of  opinion,  of  meekness  against  world- 
liness.  The  Apostles,  naturally  enough,  would  have 
chosen  a  peaceful  career  as  teachers  and  as  foun- 


446 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


ders.  But  the  Lord  tells  of  fire  and  sword — yes,  and 
He  even  longs  for  the  struggle  to  begin :  "  I  am 
come  to  cast  fire  on  the  earth ;  and  what  will  I  but 
that  it  be  kindled  ?  And  I  have  a  baptism,  where- 
with I  am  to  be  baptized  : 
and  how  am  I  straitened 
until  it  be  accomplished. 
Think  ye  that  I  am  come 
to  give  peace  on  earth  ? 
I  tell  you  no,  but  separa- 
tion. For  there  shall  be 
from  henceforth  five  in 
one  house  divided  ;  three 
against  two,  and  two 
against  three.  The  father 
shall  be  divided  against  the 
son,  and  the  son  against 
his  father,  the  mother 
against  the  daughter,  and 
the  daughter  against  the 
mother,  the  mother-in-law 
against  her  daughter-in- 
law,  and  the  daughter-in- 
law  against  her  mother-in- 
law." 

Our     Saviour's    words, 
;  Shall  separate  him,  and  shall  appoint  him  his  *'  and  how  am  I  Straitened 

portion  with  unbelievers."  until  h  be  accOmplished, ' ' 

were  a  sigh  of  anticipation  of  His  Passion.  He  was 
glad  to  suffer  for  us ;  He  was  eager  to  begin  the 
ordeal ;  but  it  was  a  baptism  of  blood  which  it  wrung 
His  very  soul  to  think  of. 

And-  why  did  not  the  multitude  who  followed 
Him  appreciate  this?  He  had  told  them  over  and 
over  again  that  He  must  be  tormented  and  put  to 


A  T  THE  FEAS  T  OF  THE  DEDICA  TION.  447 

death.  Yet  they  as  often  forgot  it.  Could  they  not 
see  it  impending  in  the  persecution  He  suffered  from 
the  Jewish  authorities  ?  Had  not  John  the  Baptist 
been  put  to  death  ?  Were  not  the  Pharisees  at  that 
moment  plainly  conspiring  for  the  Master's  d.ath? 
Could  they  not  see  all  this  and  make  ready  to  en- 
dure it,  learn  how  to  endure  it,  from  Him  ?  They 
could  read  the  fickle  signs  of  change  in  the  weather 
better  than  the  evident  future  of  His  career:  "And 
He  said  also  to  the  multitudes :  When  you  see  a 
cloud  rising  from  the  west,  presently  you  say :  A 
shower  is  coming  ;  and  so  it  happeneth :  And  when 
ye  see  the  south  wind  blow,  you  say :  There  will  be 
heat ;  and  it  cometh  to  pass.  You  hypocrites,  you 
know  how  to  discern  the  face  of  the  heaven  and  of 
the  earth  :  but  how  is  it  that  you  do  not  discern  this 
time?" 


CHAPTER  IvXVI. 

JESUS  AT    THE   FEAST    OF    THE    DEDICATION   OF    THE 
TEMPLE. — HE   AGAIN   TEACHES  THAT   HE   IS    GOD. 

fohn  x.   22-42. 

THE  feast  of  the  Dedication  of  the  Temple  had 
been  instituted  by  Judas  Machabeus  when  he  had 
defeated  the  Syrians ;  it  was  designed  to  commemo- 
rate the  purification  of  the  Temple  after  six  years 
of  profanation  under  Antiochus  Epiphanes.  To  cele- 
brate this  feast,  it  was  not  necessary  to  be  in  the 
city,  but  Jesus  chose  to  return  there  to  teach  more 
publicly  and  defiantly,  having  in  mind  to  proclaim 
His  divinity  at  least  in  such  terms  as  would  advance 
the  knowledge  of  that  stupendous  truth  one  step 
further  towards  its  final  and  complete  understanding. 


44§  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

As  He  returned  from  His  two  months'  stay  at  and 
near  Bethany,  and  from  those  excursions  which  had 
Bethany  for  their  point  of  departure,  the  winter  season 
was  well  advanced ;  the  feast  of  the  Dedication  was 
celebrated  towards  the  end  of  December.  The  Master 
therefore  took  His  stand  in  Solomon's  Porch,  which 
was  protected  from  the  winter's  cold,  being  at  the 
eastern  extremity  of  the  edifice.  It  was  a  part  of 
the  ruins  of  the  second  Temple,  not  yet  rebuilt.  The 
second  Temple  was  the  work  of  the  remnant  of  Israel 
that  returned  under  Zorobabel  from  the  Babylonian 
captivity.  Their  Temple  was  afterwards  destroyed  and 
the  one  built  by  Herod  the  Great  had  taken  its 
place.  The  Porch  of  Solomon  showed  such  vast- 
ness  in  its  very  ruins  that  it  was  thought  to  be  a 
fragment  of  the  original  Temple  built  by  Israel's  most 
splendid  and  pacific  monarch.  Solomon's  Porch  over- 
looked the  valley  of  Josaphat. 

Our  Saviour  "walked  in  the  Temple  in  Solomon's 
Porch.  The  Jews  therefore  came  round  about  Him, 
and  said  to  Him :  How  long  dost  Thou  hold  our 
souls  in  suspense  ?  If  Thou  be  the  Christ,  tell  us 
plainly."  Now  it  is  quite  likely  that  some,  if  not 
many,  of  those  who  had  gathered  about  Jesus  were 
half-hearted  converts.  They  longed  to  possess  Him, 
but  they  wanted  Him  on  their  own  terms.  Oh  His 
part,  however,  absolute  faith  was  the  essential  pre- 
liminary. If  they  believed  in  God  the  Father,  so 
must  they  believe  in  His  Son,  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
He  stood  for  God,  and  God  by  His  miracles  stood 
by  Him.  Whatever  the  Christ,  the  Messias,  may 
do  or  not  do,  He  demands  faith  to  begin  with,  such 
trust  and  obedience  and  simple-hearted  adhesion  as 
He  had  indicated  by  the  comparison  of  sheep  and 
shepherd.  "Jesus  answered  them:  I  speak  to  you 


HE  AGAIN  TEACHES  THA  T  HE  IS  GOD.  449 

and  you  believe  not ;  the  works  that  I  do  in  the 
name  of  My  Father,  they  give  testimony  of  Me. 
But  you  do  not  believe,  because  you  are  not  of  My 
sheep.  My  sheep  hear  My  voice,  and  I  know  them, 
and  they  follow  Me." 

If  He  had  said  :  My  soldiers  hear  My  word  of 
command  and  they  follow  Me,  He  would  have  gained 
His  audience  to  a  man.  If  His  miracles  were  to  aid 
in  recruiting  for  a  holy  war  against  the  pagans  and 
apostates  who  ruled  Israel,  Jesus  would  have  had 
a  powerful  army  in  a  day.  But  the  warlike  race  of 
Israel  hated  to  think  that  wisdom  and  miracles  should 
be  wasted  in  making  stalwart  men  as  meek  as  sheep. 
Wisdom  they  loved  and  miracles  they  admired,  but 
the  passion  of  their  lives  was  hatred  of  the  oppressor 
and  ambition  for  national  glory.  Could  they  not 
see  that  to  give  the  true  religion,  to  give  eternal 
salvation  to  the  whole  world,  was  a  nobler  destiny 
than  to  slay  multitudes  in  battle  and  win  a  bloody 
pre-eminence  ? 

Jesus  insisted  on  His  religious  gift  to  men:  "I 
give  them  life  everlasting,  and  they  shall  not  perish 
for  ever,  and  no  man  shall  pluck  them  out  of  My 
hand."  And  now  He  rises  higher:  the  superemi- 
nent  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life ;  Jesus  has  it,  and 
He  has  it  to  dispense  to  others.  Nor  is  He  related 
to  the  Father  in  this  as  the  Jews  are  to  Him,  the 
people  to  their  Christ :  the  Father  and  the  Son  are 
one :  "  That  which  My  Father  hath  given  Me,  is 
greater  than  all,  and  no  one  can  snatch  them  out 
of  the  hand  of  My  Father.  I  and  the  Father  are 
one."  Identity  of  will,  interests,  even  of  being,  was 
plainly  taught  by  this. 

The  effect  was  magical.  Instantly  His  outright 
enemies  sprang  forward  from  the  crowd :  they  would 


450  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

put  Him  to  the  proof.  As  if  to  say  :  "Let  us  try  if 
this  Man-God  can  stand  against  stones."  Foaming 
with  fury,  "they  took  up  stones  to  stone  Him."  But 
the  eye  of  Jesus  held  them  down  ;  it  was  like  a  palsy 
on  their  limbs.  Calmly  He  gazed  upon  them,  and 
with  steady  voice  played  with  them  in  an  argument 
kindred  to  their  own  hair-splitting  refinements  in 
interpreting  Scripture.  First  He  forced  them,  by  an 
ironical  question,  to  state  His  crime:  "Many  good 
works  I  have  showed  you  from  My  Father ;  for  which 
of  those  works  do  you  stone  Me  ? ' '  The  answer  is 
a  striking  one.  It  was  designedly  drawn  from  them 
by  Jesus,  that  we  might  clearly  know  that  His  very 
enemies  understood  Him  to  claim  divinity.  "The 
Jews  answered  Him :  For  a  good  work  we  stone 
Thee  not,  but  for  blasphemy,  and  because  that  Thou, 
being  a  man,  makest  Thyself  God."  Upon  which  the 
Master  shows  how  He  could  confute  them,  if  He 
willed  to  adopt  their  style  of  Scripture  interpretation  : 
"Is  it  not  written  in  your  law,  I  said  you  are  gods? 
If  He  called  them  gods  to  whom  the  word  was 
spoken — and  the  Scripture  cannot  be  broken— do  you 
say  of  Him  whom  the  Father  hath  sanctified  and 
sent  into  the  world,  Thou  blasphemest,-  because  I 
said  I  am  the  Son  of  God  ?  " 

It  was  as  if  to  say,  Take  My  words  at  least  as 
a  mystery.  In  themselves  they  are  not  wholly  novel. 
Whatever  they  mean  must  be  true,  though  you  can- 
not yet  fully  know  what  it  is.  Accept  Me  and  My 
Father  as  your  Teacher.-  He  continued :  "  If  I  do 
not  the  works  of  My  Father,  believe  Me  not.  But 
if  I  do,  though  you  will  not  believe  Me,  believe  the 
works."  The  meaning  was  plain  to  a  humble  heart. 
The  Great  Jehovah  was  represented  by  Jesus  Christ, 
and,  mystery  or  no  mystery,  He  must  be  uncondi- 


HE  AGAIN  TEACHES  THA  T  HE  IS  GOD.  451 

tionally  accepted.  "  Believe  the  works,"  insisted  the 
Master,  "that  you  may  know," — know  what?  At 
this  point  He  reasserts  the  foundation  truth  of  His 
religion,  His  divine  personality :  ( '  that  you  may 
know  that  the  Father  is  in  Me,  and  I  in  the 
Father." 

"  And  I  in  the  Father."  The  assertion  of  divinity 
could  not  be  plainer.  If  Jesus  said,  "I  am  God," 
they  might  answer,  Then  Thou  art  not  man.  But 
He  was  as  much  bound  to  assert  His  humanity  as  to 
teach  His  divinity.  Also,  He  must  affirm  the  triune 
personality  of  the  Deity.  The  Trinity  must  be  taught, 
and  that  needed  a  careful  distinction  in  stating  His 
relation  to  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  Bear 
the  Humanity  of  Christ  and  the  Trinity  of  God  in 
mind,  and  you  perceive  here  and  elsewhere  how  ab- 
solute and  complete  is  Christ's  teaching  of  His 
divinity. 

"And  I  in  the  Father."  If  He  had  been  nothing 
but  man,  He  could  say  truthfully,  "The  Father  is 
in  Me  "  ;  but  it  was  impossible  for  Him  truthfully 
to  say,  "The  Father  is  in  Me  and  I  am  in  the 
Fatner,"  without  being  of  one  nature  and  essence 
with  the  eternal  God.  This  explains  the  boldness 
of  His  usual  form  of  laying  down  a  divine  precept : 
**  But  /say  to  you."  How  different  from  the  prophets, 
whose  formula  was,  "Thus  saith  the  L,ord."  Jesus 
is  that  I/ord  and  speaks  for  Himself. 

"  They  sought  therefore  to  take  Him,  and  He 
escaped  out  of  their  hands."  He  had  fulfilled  His 
purpose.  He  had  added  another,  a  different,  a  most 
unequivocal  statement  of  His  being  and  His  office  to 
those  already  made.  As  He  departed  He  left  His 
secret  prohibition  upon  their  angry  souls,  so  that  they 
could  not  hurt  or  hinder  Him.  Meantime  He  had 


452  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

won  over  some  of  the  more  courageous  and  generous 
spirits:  "And  He  went  again  beyond  the  Jordan, 
into  that  place  where  John  was  baptizing  first,  and 
there  He  abode.  And  many  resorted  to  Him,  and 
they  said:  John  indeed  did  no  sign,  but  all  things 
whatsoever  John  said  of  this  Man  were  true.  And 
many  believed  in  Him." 


CHAPTER   LXVII. 

HYPOCRISY.  —  "WOE     TO     YOU    PHARISEES!" 

Luke  xi,  37-53 ,   and  xii.  1-12. 

GOING  along  the  road  towards  the  Jordan,  Jesus 
passed  through  Bethany,  and  thence  towards  the 
head  of  the  Dead  Sea,  leaving  Jericho  to  the  left, 
journeying  along  a  road  we'll  known  to  Him  and  His 
company.  He  desired  to  place  the  river  Jordan  be- 
tween Him  and  Jerusalem,  the  focus  of  all  His  ene- 
mies. He  was  leaving  the  city  for  the  last  time 
before  His  return  to  be  put  to  death. 

He  preached  publicly  and  discoursed  privately  dur- 
ing the  journey,  and  after  passing  the  river  sys- 
tematically instructed  the  people,  who  as  usual 
thronged  out  of  their  homes  to  hear  Him.  St.  John 
says  that  He  had  many  believers,  attributable  very 
likely  to  the  memories  of  the  Baptist,  who  had  done 
most  of  his  preaching  in  that  vicinity.  St.  I^uke, 
who  gives  us  more  details  than  does  St.  John  of 
this  stay  of  Jesus  in  the  Perea,  as  the  country 
beyond  the  Jordan  was  named,  relates  that  the  Saviour 
on  one  occasion  fell  into  a  hostile,  or  semi-hostile, 
company  of  Scribes  and  Pharisees.  Some  of  them 
had,  perhaps,  followed  Him  from  the  city.  At  any 
rate  one  of  their  leaders  invited  Him,  seemingly  with 


HYPOCRISY. 


453 


not    the    worst     motives,    curiosity 
predominating,  to  dine  with  him. 

The  old  trouble  arose :  "A  cer- 
tain Pharisee  prayed  Him  that  He 
would  dine  with  him.  And  He  go- 
ing in  sat  down  to  eat.  And  the 
Pharisee  began  to  say,  thinking 
within  himself,  why  He  was  not 
washed  before  dinner."  They  had 
watched  Him.  Their  very  souls 
were  set  upon  these  observances, 
wholly  without  warrant  in  the  law 
of  Moses,  and  forming  a  set  of  rules 
as  irksome  to  keep  by  ordinary 
mortals  as  they  were  delightful  to 
enforce  by  such  religious  drill  ser- 
geants as  the  Pharisees,  many  of 
whom  were  secretly  the  most  abomi- 
nable sinners.  Our  Saviour's  re- 
buke was  instant.  He  compared 
them  to  the  dirty  dishes  upon  the  table 
feast:  "Now  you  Pharisees  make  clean 


HOW  ALL  THINGS  MAY  BE  MADE  CLEAN. 

And  as  he  was  speaking  a  certain  Phari- 
see prayed  him  that  he  would  dine  with 
him.  And  he  going  in  sat  down  to  eat. 
And  the  Pharisee  began  to  say,  thinking 
within  himself,  why  he  was  not  washed 
before  dinner.  And  the  Lord  said  to  him  : 
Now  you  Pharisees  make  clean  the  outside 
of  the  cup  and  of  the  platter,  but  your 
inside  is  full  of  rapine  and  iniquity.  Ye 
fools,  did  not  He  that  made  that  which  is 
without  make  also  that  which  is  within  ? 
But  yet  that  which  remaineth  ;  give  alms, 
and  behold,  all  things  are  clean  unto  you. 
But  woe  to  you  Pharisees,  because  you 
tithe  mint,  and  rue,  and  every  herb,  and 
pass  over  judgment  and  the  charity  of 
God.  Now  these  things  you  ought  to 
have  done,  and  not  to  leave  the  other  un- 
done. Woe  to  you  Pharisees,  because  you 
love  the  uppermost  seats  in  the  synagogues 
and  salutations  in  the  market-place.  Woe 
to  you  because  you  are  as  sepulchres  that 
appear  not,  and  men  that  walk  over  are 
not  aware.  And  one  of  the  lawyers  an- 
swering, said  to  him :  Master,  in  saying 
these  things  thou  reproachest  us  also. 
But  he  said  :  Woe  to  you  lawyers  also,  be- 
cause you  load  men  with  burdens  which 
they  cannot  bear,  and  you  yourselves  touch 
not  the  packs  with  one  of  your  fingers. 


after  the 
the  outside 

of  the  cup  and  of  the  platter,  but  your  inside  is  full 
of  rapine  and  iniquity.  Ye  fools,  did  not  He  that 
made  that  which  is  without  make  also  that  which  is 
within?"  The  admonition  was  especially  addressed, 
it  would  seem  from  what  followed,  to  certain  usurers 
among  the  Pharisees.  To  all  present  the  Master  point- 
ed out  an  external  observance  which  would  crowd 
out  of  sight  every  other,  the  holy  duty  of  alms-giving  : 
"  But  [consider]  that  which  remaineth  [undone]  ;  give 
alms,  and  behold  all  things  are  clean  unto  you." 

How  terrible  a  contrast  is  drawn  in  the  succeeding 
words!  These  extortioners  ground  contributions  out 
of  the  people  down  to  a  tenth  part  of  the  little  herbs 


;  You  load  men  with 
burdens," 


454 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


of  the  kitchen  garden,  and  all  this  under  pretence  of 
religion,  while  their  own  very  souls  were  hardened 
with  uncharity  :  "  Woe  to  you  Pharisees,  because  you 
tithe  mint,  and  rue,  and  every  herb,  and  pass  over 
judgment  and  the  charity  of  God."  If  the  payment 
of  tithes  should  be  fully  observed,  or  even  minutely, 
how  much  rather  the  primary  law  of  brotherly  love. 
__  "  Now  these 

things  you 
ought  to  have 
done,  and  not 
to  leave  the 
other  un- 
done." 

Jesus  add- 
ed a  rebuke  to 
the  notorious 
pride  of  His 
fellow-guests, 
their  assump- 
tion of  supe- 
riority even 
in  divine  wor- 
ship and  in  public  intercourse  with  the  people: 
"Woe  to  you  Pharisees,  because  you  love  the  up- 
permost seats  in  the  synagogues  and  salutations  in 
the  market-place.  Woe  to  you  because  you  are  as 
sepulchres  that  appear  not,  and  men  that  walk  over 
are  not  aware." 

We  may  imagine  the  effect  of  these  fearless  accusa- 
tions. One  of  the  Scribes — lawyers  the  narrative  calls 
them — found  His  voice  after  the  first  shock  had  passed, 
and  protested :  "Master,  in  saying  these  things  Thou 
reproachest  us  also.  But  He  said :  Woe  to  you 
lawyers  also,  because  you  load  men  with  burdens 


A    WHITED   SEPULCHRE. 


"WOE  TO   YOU  PHARISEES!" 


455 


which  they  cannot  bear,  and  you  yourselves  touch 
not  the  packs  with  one  of  your  fingers."  The  Scribes 
being  the  legal  advisers  of  the  Pharisees,  shared  their 
guilt  because  they  twisted  the  law  of  Moses  into  con- 
formity with  their  clients'  wishes.  In  fact,  the  condi- 
tion of  Israel  in  our  Saviour's  day  recalled  the  most 
disastrous  eras  of  her  history,  when  the  prophets  of 
God  were  put  to  death  by  God's  own  people,  and 
when  to  honor  God  meant  to  rebel  against  the  priest- 
hood,—the  times  of  Elias,  Jeremias,  and  the  Machabees. 
Those  heroes  were  held  in  honor  by  these  very  men 
who  were  now  hounding  the  Son  of  God  to  His  death. 
Jesus  continued:  "  Woe  to  you  who  build  the  monu- 
ments of  the  prophets ;  and  your  fathers  killed  them. 
Truly  you  bear  witness  that  you  consent  to  the  doings 
of  your  fathers:  for  they  indeed  killed  them,  and  you 
build  their  sepulchres.  For  this  cause  also  the  wisdom 

"You  tithe  mint, 

of  God  said :  I  will  send  to  them  prophets  and  apos-  and  rue,  and  every 
ties,  and  some  of  them  they  wrill  kill  and  persecute  herb,  and  pass  over 
That  the  blood  of  all  the  prophets  which  was  shed  J"dsment  *nd  *hft 

chanty  of  God." 

from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  may  be  required 
of  this  generation.  From  the  blood  of  Abel  unto  the 
blood  of  Zacharias,  who  was  slain  between  the  altar 
and  the  Temple.  Yea  I  say  to  you,  it  shall  be  re- 
quired of  this  generation.  Woe  to  you  lawyers,  for 
you  have  taken  away  the  key  of  knowledge :  you 
yourselves  have  not  entered  in,  and  those  that  were 
entering  in  you  have  hindered." 

Having  thus  poured  forth  His  indignation,  Jesus 
arose  from  the  table  and  took  His  departure.  He 
was  closely  followed  by  His  enemies.  At  every  dis- 
course they  lay  in  wait  to  interrupt,  to  entrap  Him, 
to  force  Him  into  some  expression  which  would  en- 
tangle Him  with  the  Roman  authorities.  "And  as 
He  was  saying  these  things  to  them,  the  Pharisees 


456 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


'  Woe  to  you 
Pharisees." 


and  the  lawyers  began  vehemently  to  urge  Him,  and 
to  oppress  His  mouth  about  many  things,  lying  in 
wait  for  Him,  and  seeking  to  catch  something  from 
His  mouth,  that  they  might  accuse  Him."  He  stood 
His  ground.  He  gave  them  more  than  they  bargained 
for.  Especially  He  thundered  against  that  one  most 
hateful  sin  of  all  to  Him,  the  sin  which  has  caught  a 
new  name  from  these  memorable  struggles,  Pharisaism 
— the  detestable  vice  of  hypocrisy.  Jesus  called  it 
the  very  intoxication  of  the  Pharisee's  soul:  "And 
when  great  multitudes  stood  about  Him,  so  that  they 
trod  one  upon  another,  He  began  to  say  to  His  dis- 
ciples :  Beware  ye  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees, 
which  is  hypocrisy."  He  threatens  hypocrites  with 
the  penalty  they  most  mortally  dread,  discovery : 
"  For  there  is  nothing  covered  which  shall  not  be 
revealed,  nor  hidden  that  shall  not  be  known.  For 
whatsoever  things  you  have  spoken  in  darkness,  shall 
be  published  in  the  light,  and  that  which  you  have 
spoken  in  the  ear  in  the  chambers,  shall  be  preached 
on  the  housetops." 

What,  we  may  inquire,  was  the  effect  of  all  this 
upon  the  disciples  ?  What  were  they  to  think  of  the 
conspiracies  and  plots  and  attempts  at  violence,  the 
threats  and  denunciations  against  Jesus,  the  wild 
storm  beginning  to  rage  now  in  the  Perea  as  it  had 
done  so  long  in  Galilee  and  in  Jerusalem?  What 
would  be  the  end  ?  He  would  not  fight  :  how  then 
was  He,  how  were  they,  to  escape  ?  He  could  raise 
the  dead,  He  could  terrify  and  drive  before  Him  the 
very  devils,  but  He  would  not  call  the  people  to  arms, 
the  people  who  on  this  very  occasion,  as  St.  I,uke 
tells  us,  were  treading  upon  one  another  in  their 
eagerness  to  see  their  great  Prophet,  to  hear  His  life- 
giving  voice.  Was  Jesus  to  leave  them — to  say  noth- 


"WOE  TO  YOU  PHARISEES." 


457 


ing  of  Himself — to  be  torn  to  pieces 
by  the  paid  assassins  of  the  Phari- 
sees ?  Jesus  read  their  thoughts. 
He  did  not  blench  from  the  ordeal  ; 
He  called  them  to  death  and  not  to 
victory,  or  rather  to  victory  only 
through  death.  Even  more :  He 
insisted  that  such  was  God's  plan  of 
campaign.  Let  them  be  true  to 
God  and  fear  no  man.  If  God 
seemed  to  forget  them,  it  was  only 
in  the  seeming  ;  it  was  only  neces- 
sary to  think  of  His  loving  provi- 
dence, which  overruled  the  life  and  death  of  the  little 
birds  who  chirped  above  their  heads  in  the  branches 
of  the  trees.  Nor  did  He  stop  at  this.  Having  weigh- 
ed the  reasonableness  of  their  fears  in  the  balance  of 
His  Father's  love  and  found  them  wanting,  He  sol- 
emnly stood  forth  Himself  as  their  surety:  "And  I 
say  to  you,  whosoever  shall  confess  Me  before  men, 
him  shall  the  Son  of  Man  also  confess  before  the 
angels  of  God.  But  he  that  shall  deny  Me  before 
men,  shall  be  denied  before  the  angels  of  God." 


WHOM    TO    FEAR. 

And  I  say  to  you,  my  friends  :  Be  not 
afraid  of  them  who  kill  the  body,  and  after 
that  have  no  more  that  they  can  do.  But 
I  will  shew  you  'whom  ye  shall  fear  :  fear 
ye  him,  who^  after  he  hath  killed,  hath 
power  to  cast  into  hell.  Yea,  I  say  to  you, 
fear  him.  Are  not  five  sparrows  sold  for 
two  farthings,  and  not  one  of  them  is  for- 
gotten before  God  ?  Yea,  the  very  hairs  of 
your  head  are  all  numbered.  Fear  not, 
therefore ;  you  are  of  more  value  than 
many  sparrows.  And  I  say  to  you,  whoso- 
ever shall  confess  me  before  men,  him  shall 
the  Son  of  Man  also  confess  before  the 
angels  of  God.  But  he  that  shall  deny  me 
before  men,  shall  be  denied  before  the 
angels  of  God. 


458  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER  lyXVIII. 

"  WHO     HATH     APPOINTED      ME      JUDGE     OR     DIVIDER 
OVER   YOU  ?  "—  COVETOUSNESS. 

Luke  xii.  13—21. 

As  Jesus    ceased    His   discourse   a  harsh   note  of 
worldliness  was   heard  :   '  '  One   of  the  multitude  said 
to  Him,    Master,  speak  to  my  brother  that  he   divide 
the  inheritance  with  me?"     Now,  this   was   a  matter 
for  the  civil  courts  to  decide,  not  to  be  intruded  into 
the  religious  teaching  of  Jesus.     Fairness  with  one's 
brother  in  dividing  the  family  inheritance    is,  indeed, 
a  religious    duty,    but    for   the    decision   of  practical 
cases    God    has    appointed    the    secular   authority. 
If  this   man   had   asked    Jesus   to    settle   a   family 
feud,  or  even  to  heal   an  infirm  brother,  he  would 
have    gained    his    purpose.      But   it   was    not    the 
Heavenly  Father's  will  that  His  Son  should  come 
on   earth   to   set   up  a  tribunal    for    the    settlement 
of   land   titles   or    similar    matters.     So   Jesus    an- 
swered  severely:   "  Man,    who    hath  appointed  Me 
judge  or  divider  over  you?" 
Whose  shall   those       Furthermore,    our   Saviour's  eye   penetrated   the 
U  motive  of  this  petitioner.     It  was  avarice  ;  the  man 
feared  the   civil  court  for   the  reason*  that  he  coveted 
his  brother's  rightful  portion.     Upon  which,  therefore, 
the   Master    added   a    deeper    shade   to   His   rebuke. 
Turning    to   the    multitude   He    said    most    gravely  : 
"  Take    heed   of  all    covetousness,    for   a    man's    life 
does    not    consist    in    the    abundance   of  the    things 
which  he  possesseth."      Herein    the  Divine   Teacher 
sets    His   face   squarely   against   the   views   and    cus- 
toms of   the  mass   of  mankind.     Money   is    not  only 
a  token  of  value  representing  things  needful  to  life, 


COVETOUSNESS. 


459 


as  food  and  drink  ;  money  is  wrongly  made  a  token 
of  the  value  of  men  and  women.  They  are  graded 
by  "  what  they  are  worth."  No  antagonism  is  deadlier 
than  that  of  Christ's  spirit  against  the  rule  of  money, 
so  often  dominating  both  poor  and  rich.  If  men 
are  poor,  even  though  not  in  want,  yet  they  are 
devoured  with  anxiety  to  get  money  to  hoard.  If  men 
are  rich,  the  one  passion  of  life  is 
to  become  richer.  On  the  contrary, 
the  true  Christian  looks  to  Provi- 
dence for  the  much  or  little  he 
needs,  labors  mainly  for  God's  sake 
and  to  serve  his  family's  reasonable 
wants,  and  if  distressed  by  mis- 
fortune is  yet  not  overthrown.  Our 
Saviour  now  uttered  one  of  His 
most  famous  parables  to  illustrate 
who  is  poor  and  who  is  rich  "to- 
wards God." 

Terrible   words  :     "  Thou    Fool  ! 


"  THOU   FOOL! " 

And  he  spoke  a  similitude  to  them,  say- 
ing :  The  land  of  a  certain  rich  man 
brought  forth  plenty  of  fruits.  And  he 
thought  within  himself,  saying:  What 
shall  I  do,  because  I  have  no  room  where 
to  bestow  my  fruits  ?  And  he  said  :  This 
will  I  do :  I  will  pull  down  my  barns,  and 
will  build  greater  :  and  into  them  will  I 
gather  all  things  that  are  grown  to  me,  and 
my  goods.  And  I  will  say  to  my  soul : 
Soul,  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for 
many  years,  take  thy  rest,  eat,  drink, 
make  good  cheer.  But  God  said  to  him  : 
Thou  fool,  this  night  do  they  require  thy 
soul  of  thee  ;  and  whose  shall  those  things 
be  which  thou  hast  provided  ?  So  is  he 
that  layeth  up  treasure  for  himself,  and  is 
not  rich  towards  God. 


This  night  do  they  require  thy  soul  of  thee!  "  That 
soul  had  become  like  a  field  whose  fertile  soil  has 
been  monopolized  by  weeds.  It  is  now  before  God, 
naked,  barren,  and  fruitless  for  ever.  Of  all  the  vices 
none  exhausts  the  spirit  of  man  more  fatally  with  its 
absorbing  intensity  than  love  of  money.  Against  no 
vice  did  Jesus  speak  more  earnestly  than  against 
that  of  avarice. 


46o 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER 

HEALING     THE     INFIRM     WOMAN     ON     THE     SABBATH- 
DAY.  —  THE    DROPSICAL   MAN. 


Luke  xiii.  10-17, 

ENTRANCE  to  the  synagogues  was  not  denied 
our  Saviour  in  the  Perea  ;  the  land  beyond  the  Jordan 
was  not  so  quickly  aroused  against  Him  as  parts 
nearer  the  city.  But  the  Sabbatarian  sentiment  of 
the  Jews  was  well  developed  there,  nor  can  we  sup- 
pose that  any  part  of  Palestine  had  been  quite  exempt 
from  the  intrigues  of  the  conspirators.  Hence  the 
following  incidents,  the  account  ot  which  is  almost  a 
verbal  repetition  of  similar  ones  which  had  taken 
place  in  far-off  Galilee.  Jesus,  while  preaching  in  a 
synagogue,  was  touched  with  pity  at  the  sight  of  a 
_  poor  woman  bent  double  with  an  in- 
firmity which  the  Devil's  spell  had 
imposed  on  her.  Without  solicita- 
tion our  Saviour  healed  her,  and 
thereupon  He  must  fight  the  Sab- 
batarians. 

"  And  it  came  to  pass,  when 
Jesus  went  into  the  house  of  one 
of  the  chief  of  the  Pharisees  on  the 
Sabbath-day,  to  eat  bread,  that 
they  watched  Him.  And  behold 
there  was  a  certain  man  before  Him 
that  had  the  dropsy.  And  Jesus 
answering  spoke  to  the  lawyers  and 
Pharisees,  saying  :  Is  it  lawful  to 
heal  on  the  Sabbath-day?  But 
they  held  their  peace.  But  He  tak- 
ing him,  healed  him,  and  sent  him 


MIRACLES  ON    THE   SABBATH. 

And  he  was  teaching  in  their  synagogue 
on  their  Sabbath.  And  behold  there  was  a 
woman  who  had  a  spirit  of  infirmity 
eighteen  years :  and  she  was  bowed  to- 
gether, neither  could  she  look  upwards  at 
all.  Whom  when  Jesus  saw,  he  called  her 
unto  him,  and  said  to  her  :  Woman,  thou 
art  delivered  from  thy  infirmity.  And  he 
laid  his  hands  upon  her,  and  immediately 
she  was  made  straight,  and  glorified  God. 
And  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue  (being 
angry  that  Jesus  had  healed  on  the  Sab- 
bath), answering  said  to  the  multitude  : 
Six  days  there  are  wherein  you  ought  to 
work.  In  them  therefore  come,  and  be 
healed :  and  not  on  the  Sabbath-day. 
And  the  Lord  answering  him,  said :  Ye 
hypocrites,  doth  not  every  one  of  you  on 
the  Sabbath-day  loose  his  ox  or  his  ass 
from  the  manger,  and  lead  them  to  water  ? 
And  ought  not  this  daughter  of  Abraham, 
whom  Satan  hath  bound,  lo,  these  eighteen 
years,  be  loosed  from  this  bond  on  the 
Sabbath-day?  And  when  he  said  th'ese 
things,  all  his  adversaries  were  ashamed  : 
and  all  the  people  rejoiced  for  all  the 
things  that  were  gloriously  done  by  him. 


HEALING  ON  THE  SABBA  TH-DA  Y. 

away.  And  answering  them,  He  said : 
Which  of  you  shall  have  an  ass  or  an  ox 
fall  into  a  pit,  and  will  not  immediately 
draw  him  out  on  the  Sabbath-day.  And 
they  could  not  answer  Him  to  these  things." 

No  wonder  the  people  rejoiced  at  this 
coupling  of  charity  to  the  unfortunate  with 
stinging  rebuke  to  the  hard-hearted  who 
could  resist  such  an  argument, — pointing 
out  the  incongruity  of  allowing  the  water- 
ing of  a  beast  and  prohibiting  the  healing 
of  a  daughter  of  Abraham  on  the  Sabbath  ; 
it  was  too  striking  a  plea  to  be  resisted, 
especially  when  advanced  by  the  Wonder- 
Worker  Himself. 

On  that  same  day,  or  at  any  rate  on  another  Sab- 
bath, one  of  the  leading  Pharisees  invited  Jesus  to  eat 
with  him.  His  intentions  seem  to  have  been  good, 
but  it  looks  as  if  some  evil-minded  person  had  caused 
a  dropsical  man  to  be  placed  near  by,  that  Jesus 
might  again  be  involved  in  a  Sabbatarian  difficulty. 
Jesus  this  time  took  the  offensive,  asked  them  frankly 
if  He  could  lawfully  heal  the  poor  man,  got  no  an- 
swer but  black  looks,  healed  the  man  and  sent  him 
away  rejoicing. 


Neither   could   she  look  up- 
wards at  all." 


CHAPTER   LXX. 

FIRST      PLACES     AT      TABLE. — THE       GREAT      SUPPER  I 
"  COMPEL   THEM    TO    COME    IN." 

Luke  xiv.  7-24. 

THAT  our  Saviour  adjudged  His  host  innocent  of 
trickery  in  inviting  Him  to  his  table,  seems  probable 
from  the  fact  that  whereas  He  taught  the  guests  who 
were  present  a  very  severe  lesson,  He  gave  only  some 


462 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


gentle  advice  to  the  host,  namely,  that  he  should 
remember  the  poor  in  preference  even  to  his  blood 
kindred.  "  He  that  exalteth  himself  shall  be  humbled, 
and  he  that  humbleth  himself  shall  be  exalted."  If 
any  university  could  teach  us  the  full  contents  of 
that  dogma  of  humility,  it  would  be  the  favorite  edu- 
cational institution  of  the  Church  militant,  suffering, 
and  triumphant. 

The  admonition  to  His  host — "when  thou  makest 
a  feast,  call  the  poor,  the  maimed, 
the  lame,  and  the  blind " — was 
given,  probably,  because  our  Lord 
perceived  that  he  preferred  the 
rich :  they  could  return  the  favor 
in  kind,  could  invite  him  to  their 
own  banquets,  and  so  motives  would 
become  debased  on  all  sides ;  how 
much  nobler  to  serve  men  according 
to  their  necessities,  and  for  mere 
love, — for  the  golden  coin  of  grati- 
tude ! 

A  religiously-minded  guest  was 
caught  by  the  closing  sentence, 
"the  resurrection  of  the  just,"  and 
spoke  of  the  eternal  banquet  of 
Paradise,  thus  giving  occasion  for 
the  parable  of  the  Great  Supper. 
Needless  to  say  that  the  Lord  of 
that  banquet  is  God,  that  the  first 
guests  invited  are  the  Jews ;  upon 
their  refusing,  the  Gentiles  are  called  in.  Taking  the 
parable  in  a  broader  sense,  the  first  invited  are  the 
more  intelligent,  the  so-called  better  born,  the  more 
wealthy;  these  are  too  often  accustomed  to  trifle 
with  the  call  of  God  and  of  His  Church  to  the  service 


EVERY    ONE    THAT    EXALTETH     HIMSELF 
SHALL    BE    HUMBLED." 

And  he  spoke  a  parable  also  to  them 
that  were  invited,  marking  how  they  chose 
i  the  first  seats  at  the  table,  saying  to  them  : 
|  When  thou  art  invited  to  a  wedding,  sit 
I  not  down  in  the  first  place,  lest  perhaps 
(one  more  honorable  than  thou  be  invited 
by  him  ;  and  he  that  invited  thee  and  him, 
come  and  say  to  thee,  Give  this  man  place  : 
and  then  thou  begin  with  shame  to  take 
the  lowest  place.  But  when  thou  art  in- 
vited, go,  sit  down  in  the  lowest  place : 
that  when  he  who  invited  thee  cometh,  he 
may  say  to  thee  :  Friend,  go  up  higher. 
Then  shall  thou  have  glory  before  them 
that  sit  at  table  with  thee.  Because  every 
one  that  exalteth  himself,  shall  be  humbled  : 
and  he  that  humbleth  himself,  shall  be 
exalted.  And  he  said  to  him  also  that 
had  invited  him  :  When  thou..  makest  a 
dinner  or  a  supper,  call  not  thy  friends, 
nor  thy  brethren,  nor  thy  kinsmen,  nor 
thy  neighbors  who  are  rich  :  lest  perhaps 
they  also  invite  thee  again,  and  a  recom- 
pense be  made  to  thee.  But  when  thou 
makest  a  feast,  call  the  poor,  the  maimed, 
the  lame,  and  the  blind.  And  thou  shalt 
be  blessed,  because  they  have  not  where- 
with to  make  thee  recompense  :  for  recom- 
pense shall  be  made  thee  at  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  just. 


THE  GREA  T  SUPPER. 


463 


of  Jesus  Christ,  and  then  their 
places  are  taken  by  outcasts  ;  civil- 
ized nations  are  displaced  by  hordes 
of  barbarians,  brutal  sinners  are 
converted  in  preference  to  more  re- 
fined transgressors,  till  finally  the 
purpose  of  God  is  accomplished, 
and  His  elect  are  saved. 

There   are   many  lessons  in   this 
parable.     Farms  and  oxen  and  wed- 
ding joys  are  politely  offered  as  ex- 
cuses for  neglecting  the  worship  of 
the  living  God,  for   postponing   re- 
pentance for  filthy  sin,   for  neglect- 
ing to  train  children    in  the  divine 
law.     Persuasion  has  been  address- 
ed  to   all   of    these,    the   pampered 
favorites  of  this  world.     For  the  peo- 
ple in  the  cellars  and  garrets  and  in 
the   swarming   slums,   for  the  half- 
starved  peasants  in  ruined  country 
places,  for  these  spiritually  "poor  and  feeble  and  blind 
and   lame,"  little    persuasion  is  needed.     Go  to  them 
quickly,   says   the    Master,   and  merely  tell   them   the 
Glad    Tidings,    and    they     . 
will  come.     Tell  them  of 
the  equality  of  the  divine 
love  for  men  of  all  classes, 
tell  them  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion, of  the  sweet  con- 
solation of  a  good  confes- 
sion, of  the  faithful  priest 
and  the  ministering  Sister 
of   Charity ;     never   mind 
persuasion ;  simply  talk  of  » I  pray  thee  hold  me  excused.* 


"COMPEL    THEM    TO    COME    IN." 

When  one  of  them  that  sat  at  table  with 
him  had  heard  these  things,  he  said  to 
him  :  Blessed  is  he  that  shall  eat  bread  in 
the  kingdom  of  God.  But  he  said  to  him  : 
A  certain  man  made  a  great  supper,  and 
invited  many.  And  he  sent  his  servant  at 
the  hour  of  supper  to  say  to  them  that 
were  invited,  that  they  should  come,  for 
now  all  things  are  ready.  And  they  began 
all  at  once  to  make  excuse.  The  first  said 
to  him,  I  have  bought  a  farm,  and  I  must 
needs  go  out  and  see  it ;  I  pray  thee,  hold 
me  excused.  And  another  said,  I  have 
bought  five  yoke  of  oxen,  and  I  go  to  try 
them  :  I  pray  thee,  hold  me  excused.  And 
another  said,  I  have  married  a  wife,  and 
therefore  I  cannot  come.  And  the  servant 
returning  told  these  things  to  his  lord. 
Then  the  master  of  the  house  being  angry, 
said  to  his  servant :  Go  out  quickly  into 
the  streets  and  lanes  of  the  city,  and  bring 
in  hither  the  poor  and  the  feeble  and  the 
blind  and  the  lame.  And  the  servant 
said  :  Lord,  it  is  done  as  thou  hast  com- 
manded, and  yet  there  is  room.  And  the 
lord  said  to  the  servant :  Go  out  into  the 
highways  and  hedges;  and  compel  them 
to  come  in,  that  my  house  may  be  filled. 
But  I  say  unto  you,  that  none  of  those 
men  that  were  invited  shall  taste  of  my 
supper. 


464  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

these  things,  and  of  Paradise,  and  you  will  see  them 
spring  up  and  follow  you  hi.  Is  there  still  room? 
Then  take  My  unseen  but  resistless  grace,  and  by 
its  loving  compulsion  fill  up  every  place ;  bring  in 
tramps  and  harlots,  jail-birds  and  apostates,  —compel 
them  to  come  in.  Never  did  monarch  wear  his  baubles 
of  crown  and  sceptre  with  the  joy  with  which  these 
outcasts  will  wear  the  fetters  of  My  love  and  suffer 
the  compulsion  of  My  grace. 


CHAPTER   LXXI. 

THK  CHOSEN  FEW. — THE  SLAUGHTER  OF  THE  GALI- 
LEANS AND  THE  FALLING  OF  THE  TOWER  OF 
SILOE. 

Luke  xiii.  22-30,  and  xiii.  7-5. 

WHEN  St.  Luke  says  that  this  question  was  dis- 
cussed by  our  Saviour  while  "  making  His  journey 
to  Jerusalem,"  he  can  hardly  be  taken  to  mean  the 
final  and  direct  return  there,  but  he  rather  refers 
to  a  portion  of  that  circuit  of  teaching  through  the 
cities  and  towns  which  is  mentioned  in  the  twenty- 
second  verse  of  this  thirteenth  chapter,  and  which 
brought  Him  gradually  back  to  the  city. 

"  A  certain  man  said  to  Him  :  Lord,  are  they 
few  that  are  saved?"  Fortunately  for  us  we  can  be 
saved  without  solving  this  difficulty,  one  of  the 
most  perplexing  to  theologians,  and  among  the  most 
hotly  disputed.  The  Master  did  not  answer  directly. 
It  is  certain  that  only  a  small  number  adopt  those 
means  of  salvation  which  make  a  happy  death  a 
moral  certainty,  and  Jesus  confined  Himself  to  urging 
this  upon  His  hearers;  "  He  said  to  them,  Strive  to 
enter  by  the  narrow  gate,  for  many,  I  say  to  you, 


THE  CHOSEN  FEW. 


465 


shall  seek  to  enter  and  shall  not  be  able."  The 
word  "many"  may  refer  to  that  large  class  whose 
religion  is  but  skin-deep,  its  truths  lodging  on  the 
surface  of  their  minds ;  as  to  practical  religion,  it 
is  with  such  persons  chiefly  a  matter  of  family  tradi- 
tion, of  local  association,  and  of  name  rather  than 
of  solid  inner  and  outer  conformity  to  God's  will. 
And  "when  the  master  of  the  house  shall  be  gone 
in,  and  shall  shut  to  the  door,  you  shall  begin  to 
stand  without  and  knock  at  the  door,  saying,  Lord, 
open  to  us.  And  He  answering,  shall  say  to  you  :  I 
know  you  not  whence  you  are."  Now,  it  is  singular 
that  any  one  could  hope  to  dwell  with  God  and  His 
angels  for  ever  unless  because  he  loved  God  and 
gladly  served  Him,  and  thus  had  lived  and  died. 
But  observation  of  the  conduct  of  superficial  Chris- 
tians bears  out  the  remainder  of  our  Saviour's  de- 
scription of  this  class:  "Then  you  shall  begin  to 
say :  We  have  eaten  and  drunk  in 
Thy  presence,  and  Thou  hast  taught 
in  our  streets."  They  claim  divine 
friendship  not  because  they  were 
really  God's  friends,  but  because  by 
accident  of  birth  they  could  have 
easily  loved  Him,  if  they  only  had 
wished  to  do  so  :  a  wonderful  de- 
lusion. The  Lord  shall  therefore 
(and  all  the  more  justly)  say  to 
them  "  I  know  you  not  whence  you 
are  ;  depart  from  Me,  all  ye  workers 
of  iniquity."  In  contrast  with 
these,  who  trusted  for  salvation 
neither  to  God's  goodness  nor  their 
own  efforts,  but  rather  to  God's 
carelessness  and  their  own  good 


"  LORD,    OPEN   TO   US." 

And  a  certain  man  said  to  him :  Lord, 
are  they  few  that  are  saved  ?  But  he  said 
to  them  :  Strive  to  enter  by  the  narrow 
gate,  for  many,  I  say  to  you,  shall  seek  to 
enter  and  shall  not  be  able.  But  when 
the  Master  of  the  house  shall  be  gone  in, 
and  shall  shut  to  the  door,  you  shall  begin 
to  stand  without  and  knock  at  the  door, 
saying:  Lord,  open  to  us.  And  he  an- 
swering, shall  say  to  you  :  I  know  you 
not  whence  you  are.  Then  you  shall 
begin  to  say  :  We  have  eaten  and  drunk 
in  thy  presence,  and  thou  hast  taught  in 
our  streets.  And  he  shall  say  to  you  :  I 
know  you  not  whence  you  are;  depart 
from  me,  all  ye  workers  of  iniquity.  There 
shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth, 
when  you  shall  see  Abraham  and  Isaac  and 
Jacob  and  all  the  prophets,  in  the  King- 
dom of  God,  and  you  yourselves  thrust 
out.  And  these  shall  come  from  the  east 
and  the  west,  and  the  north  and  the  south, 
and  shall  sit  down  in  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
And  behold,  they  are  last  who  shall  be 
first,  and  they  are  first  that  shall  be  last. 


466  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

luck — in  terrible  contrast  with  these  will  be  the  faithful 
souls  who  loved  God  and  did  His  will :  "  There  shall 
be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth,  when  you  shall 
see  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob  and  all  the 
prophets,  in  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  you  your- 
selves thrust  out." 

Having  applied  this  lesson  to  the  cowardly 
Hebrews  in  comparison  with  the  earnest  ones,  Jesus 
furthermore  contrasted  the  chosen  race  of  Israel  with 
the  net  of  the  world.  How  His  loving  soul  must 
have  expanded  as  He  lifted  His  face  and  stretched 
forth  His  arms  towards  the  whole  wide  world,  cry- 
ing out :  ' '  And  these  shall  come  from  the  east  and 
the  west,  and  the  north  and  the  south,  and  shall 
sit  down  in  the  Kingdom  of  God.  And  behold,  they 
are  last  who  shall  be  first,  and  they  are  first  that 
shall  be  last." 

There  are  some  who  hope  to  enter  heaven  by  a 
system  of  religious  passwords  ;  or  by  faith  alone ;  or 
by  works  alone ;  or  by  the  virtues  of  their  family ; 
or  by  exceptional  favor,  as  men  travel  a  railroad  by 
commutation  tickets  ;  or  by  some  vague  minimum  of 
merit  because  they  are  too  busy  to  do  more ;  or 
merely  by  good  luck.  Against  all  of  these  Jesus 
Christ  stands  as  firm  as  the  battlements  of  heaven 
and  as  eternal  as  God's  life.  Men  are  saved  by 
earnest  faith  in  God,  together  with  practical  love  of 
God  and  their  neighbor.  Beyond  this  there  is  only 
delusion  in  this  world  and  weeping  and  gnashing  of 
teeth  in  the  next. 

During  this  discourse  upon  the  Narrow  Gate,  the 
Master  and  His  following  received  news  of  the 
massacre  by  Pontius  Pilate  of  a  turbulent  mob  of 
Galileans,  whose  blood  was  shed  in  the  very  Temple 
itself.  How  our  Saviour  turned  this  into  a  lesson, 


THE  SLAUGHTER  OF  THE  GALILEANS.  467 

and  also  that  of  the  dreadful  death  of  the  men  upon 
whom  a  tower  had  fallen  near  the  city,  is  seen  in 
the  following:  "And  there  were  present  at  that  very 
time  some  that  told  him  of  the  Galileans,  whose  blood 
Pilate  had  mingled  with  their  sacrifices.  And  he 
answering  said  to  them  :  Think  you  that  these  Gali- 
leans were  sinners  above  all  the  men  of  Galilee,  be- 
cause they  suffered  such  things  ?  No,  I  say  to  you : 
but  unless  you  shall  do  penance,  you  shall  all  like- 
wise perish.  Or  those  eighteen  upon  whom  the  tower 
fell  in  Siloe,  and  slew  them  :  think  you  that  they  also 
were  debtors  above  all  the  men  that  dwelt  in  Jeru- 
salem ?  No,  I  say  to  you  :  but  except  you  do 
penance,  you  shall  all  likewise  perish." 

Our  Saviour  touches  us  all  with  these  words  as  a 
surgeon  does  his  patient  :  passing  his  hand  over 
the  ulcer,  where  his  touch  hurts  us  most  his  knife 
will  sink  deepest.  Penance  is  the  knife  of  God  for  our 
salvation.  Spiritual  ointments  and  lotions  are  good 
for  ve'nial  faults,  which  are  like  skin  diseases,  whereas 
mortal  sin  must  be  totally  cut  away.  Again,  it  is  a 
trait  of  fallen  man  to  apply  such  judgments  as  sudden 
death  to  other  sinners  rather  than  to  themselves. 
Our  Saviour  taught  otherwise.  The  pale  faces  and 
the  breathless  words  of  the  terrified  messengers  tell- 
ing the  Galilean  disciples  of  the  bloody  fate  of  their 
neighbors  and  friends,  was  to  the  Master  a  good 
opportunity,  though  a  very  sad  one,  to  lift  His  gentle 
voice  and  warn  them  to  take  the  lesson  home  to 
their  own  hearts. 


468  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER  LXXII. 

"WHY   CUMBERETH    IT   THE    GROUND." 

Luke  xiii.    6—9. 

FURTHER  enforcement  of  the  duty  of  immediate 
repentance,  and  the  danger  of  delay,  the  Master  gave, 
as  was  His  custom,  by  a  pictured  lesson.  What  men 
know  by  abstract  precepts  they  know  as  the  doctor's 
remedy  written  in  the  prescription  ;  what  they  know 
through  parables  is  like  the  very 
taste  and  strength  of  the  medicine 


ONE  YEAR   MORE. 


He  spoke  also  this  parable  :  A  certain 
man  had  a  fig-tree  planted  in  his  vineyard, 
and  he  came  seeking  fruit  on  it,  and  found 
'none.  And  he  said  to  the  dresser  of  the 
vineyard  :  Behold  for  these  three  years  I 
come  seeking  fruit  on  this  fig-tree,  and  I 
find  none.  Cut  it  down  therefore  ;  why 
cumbereth  it  the  ground  ?  But  he  answer- 
ing said  to  him  :  Lord,  let  it  alone  this 
year  also,  until  I  dig  about  it,  and  dung  it. 


dig  a  _ 

And  if  happily   it  bear  fruit :  but  if  not, 
then  after  that  thou  shalt  cut  it  down. 


itself. 


What  sinner  is  there  wholly  des- 
titute of  a  friend  to  pray  for  him? 
How  many  of  us  must  thank  for  our 
salvation  a  loving  mother  whose 
prayer  has  been  as  constant  as  the 
rising  sun,  and  as  sure  of  success 
as  the  sun  of  giving  the  morning 
dawn.  Then  there  are  the  Saints  in  Heaven,  these 
same  Apostles  of  Jesus,  the  Mother  of  Jesus,  who  was 
for  so  long  His  only  Apostle,  our  patron  saints,  our 
guardian  angels.  These  and  all  other  saints  plead 
for  sinners,  and  not  in  vain  ;  for  it  is  the  Redeemer's 
will  to  save  men  by  the  preaching  and  ministering 
and  praying  of  other  men,  aided  by  the  angels. 
Jesus  is  the  one  Advocate  between  God  and  man  as 
far  as  the  mediation  of  merit  is  concerned.  But  the 
mediatorship  of  prayer,  instruction,  correction,  and 
example  is  universal. 


ALL  FOR  ALL. 


469 


CHAPTER  LXXIII.^ 

"THIS    MAN    BEGAN    TO    BUIIJ)    AND    WAS   NOT 
TO   FINISH." 

Luke  xiv.  25—35. 

WE  know  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  Perea,  pur- 
posely chosen  by  John  the  Baptist  as  his  usual 
auditory,  were,  like  the  Galileans,  good  and  true 
Israelites,  being  little  tainted  by  the  leaven  of  the 
Pharisees.  But  in  its  entirety  the  claim  of  Jesus 
Christ  upon  men  put  to  the  test  all  and  more  than 
all  that  they  could  offer  of  devotedness.  God  exacts 
all  and  gives  all — such  is  the  agreement ;  a  simple 
bargain,  but  effecting  a  perfect  exchange. 

L,et  the  reader   place  himself  amid  the  throng  ;  let 
him  make  his  own  the  deep  Jewish  affec-    ftj 
tion  for  home  and  kindred;  let  him  fancy  ,     * 
the   beaming  face,  the  uplifted  arms,  the  ' 
penetrating   voice  of  the  Master,  and  so 
realize   the    force  of  this   teaching  :     "If  any 
man  come  to  Me,  and  hate  not  his  father  and 
mother,  and  wife    and  children,  and    brethren 
and  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life  also,  he  can- 
not be  My  disciple."     They  could  understand 
the  word  "hate,"  as  applied  to  the  treatment 
of  those  who,  though  nearest  of  kin,  yet  would 
hold   a  man    back   from  the  love  of  Jesus  the 
Son   of  God.     But  what  did  He  mean  by  the 
words   that   followed  ?     '  *  And  whosoever  doth 
not  carry  his   cross   and   come  after   Me,  can- 
not be  My  disciple?"     The  Cross?     What  is 
that  ?     Is  it  some  emblem,  or  amulet,  or  secret 
sign  of  fellowship?     The  Romans  put  men  to 
death  on  a  cross— could  it  be    possible    that 


ALL  FOR  ALL. 

And  there  went  great  multitudes  with 
him  ;  and  turning,  he  said  to  them  :  If  any 
man  come  to  me,  and  hate  not  his  father, 
and  mother,  and  wife,  and  children,  and 
brethren,  and  sisters,  yea  and  his  own  life 
also,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple.  And  who- 
soever doth  not  carry  his  cross  and  come 
after  me,  cannot  be  my  disciple. 


470  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

the  Master  meant  that  such  a  disgraceful  end  should 
be  His,  and  that  such  was  also  the  risk  His  disciples 
would  run, — that  He  would  lead 
them  to  it  by  dying  thus  Himself? 
These  were  their  thoughts  on  hear- 
ing this  mention  of  the  emblem  of 
sovereign  love,  the  amulet  indeed 
in  all  ages  which  puts  a  happy  spell 
upon  whomsoever  wears  it,  the 
secret  and  public  sign  of  men  and  nations  who  say 
and  continue  saying  :  *  '  With  Christ  I  am  nailed  to 
the  cross." 

The  frankness  of  Jesus  grows  apace.  From  day 
to  day  He  reveals  more  and  more  of  the  Glad  Tidings. 
The  universal  Church,  as  supplanting  the  Jewish 
national  Church,  is  revealed ;  the  only  salvation  is 
Jesus  leading  to  the  Father  by  the  Holy  Spirit  ; 
the  oneness  of  the  Three  Persons  and  the  personal 
difference  of  the  Three  in  One  ;  the  identity  of  Jesus 
with  their  God  Jehovah,  though  He  is  man  as  well 
as  God  ;  the  need  that  He  must  suffer  and  die  and 
rise  again  to  life ;  His  appointing  leaders  in  His 
Church  who  are  set  apart  as  the  officials  in  a 
thoroughly  organized  society  ;  the  Spirit  and  the  water 
in  baptism  ;  the  Body  and  Blood  and  the  bread  and 
wine  in  the  personal  union  of  God  and  man  in  fulness 
of  love ;  and  now  the  farewell  to  parents  and  wife 
and  children  and  home  and  country  if  these  stand 
against  Christ.  The  sign  of  it  all  is  the  Cross.  I^ove 
of  mother  and  father  is  holy,  but  there  is  something 
holier ;  love  of  wife  and  child  is  holy,  but  there 
is  something  holier:  it  is  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ. 
lyove  of  home  is  strong  and  love  of  life  is  stronger; 
but  the  strongest  force  this  world  has  ever  known 
is  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ. 


ALL  FOR  ALL. 


471 


He   warns   them   to   count  the   cost   before  casting 
their  lot  with  Him  and  enrolling  under  such  a  standard. 

The  teaching  of  Jesus  develops  a  hard  religion, 
and  this  is  frankly  stated  by  Him ;  there  is  no  hiding 
of  the  cross.  Hence  the  admonition  to  think  before 
accepting.  Enthusiasm  is  good,  imagination  has 
great  uses,  generous  impulse  is  to  be  cultivated,  the 
panic  of  sinners  fleeing  from  divine  wrath  is  contagious 
and  is  of  great  worth  in  religion,  as  well  as  the 
other  and  happier  contagion  of  loving  company  among 
the  righteous :  all  these  are  good,  but  the  great 
essential  for  obtaining  joy  is  the  bitter  cross.  One  by 
one  and  very  calmly  the  followers  of  Jesus  must  in- 
telligently accept  beforehand  all  hardships,  even  to 
death  itself,  if  they  are  to  become  wholly  and  finally 
subject  to  His  will.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  such 
expressions  as  being  made  a  Christian,  being  con- 
verted, changed  in  heart,  sanctified,  enlightened  by  the 
Holy  Spirit.  The  cross  leads  to  that  new  and  hither- 
to uncomprehended  joy  which  is  the  dominant  senti- 
ment of  Christians.  "  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory 
save  in  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ."  It  is  the  glory 
of  reason  painfully  but  joyfully 
triumphing  over  appetite  ;  the  vic- 
tory of  the  man  over  the  animal. 
Especially  it  is  the  hard  struggle, 
but  joyfully  won,  of  the  supernatur- 
al spirit  of  Jesus  over  the  natural 
spirit  of  the  old  Adam. 

It  is  consoling  to  know  that  the 
easiest  way  to  win  souls  to  our 
Saviour  is  honest  imitation  of  His 
plain  statement  of  this  heroic  ele- 
ment in  His  religion.  Try  to  hide 
the  cross,  and  you  may  gain  ad- 


ENTIRE   RENUNCIATION. 

For  which  of  you  having  a  mind  to  build 
a  tower,  doth  not  first  sit  down  and  reckon 
the  charges  that  are  necessary,  whether  he 
have  wherewithal  to  finish  it  :  Lest  after 
he  hath  laid  the  foundation,  and  is  not  able 
to  finish  it,  all  that  see  it  begin  to  mock 
him,  saying:  This  man  began  lo  build, 
and  was  not  able  to  finish.  Or  what  king 
about  to  go  to  make  war  against  another 
king,  doth  not  first  sit  down  and  think 
whether  he  be  able  with  ten  thousand  tc 
meet  him  that  with  twenty  thousand  cometh 
against  him  ?  Or  else  whilst  the  other  it 
yet  afar  off,  sending  an  embassy,  he  de- 
sireth  conditions  of  peace.  So  likewise 
every  one  of  you  that  doth  not  renounce  all 
that  he  possesseth,  cannot  be  my  disciple. 


472  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

herents  of  Christ  but  not  disciples.  Tell  the  whole 
truth  of  Christ,  and  you  win  the  whole  heart  of  man. 
Thanks  be  to  God  for  this  :  it  is  honorable  to  our 
fallen  humanity. 


CHAPTER  LXXIV. 

JESUS   IS   WARNED   AGAINST   HEROD. 
Luke  xiii.  31-35. 

ONE  knew  better  than  the  Pharisees  the  fear- 
lessness of  Jesus.     While   in   the  Perea  He 
had  taught  those  inspiring  maxims   of  con- 
tempt of    danger   and    even    of    death  which  are 
characteristic   of    His   religion.     Why,  then,  did 
they  think  to  rid  themselves  of  Him  by  the  warn- 
ing :    "Depart   and   get  Thee   hence^  for  Herod 
hath  a  mind  to   kill  Thee."     It  is   possible  that 
the   particular  Pharisees  who   gave  this  advice  meant 
Him  well,  but  it  is  not  likely. 

Our  Saviour's  answer  to  the  warning  was  a  singu- 
lar one,  and  His  meaning  is  involved  in  mystery. 
He  calls  Herod  "  that  fox,"  and  He  says  that  He 
has  but  a  few  more  days  for  driving  out  demons  and 
healing  the  sick,  and  after  that  Herod  and  all  His 
other  .  enemies  will  have  their  will; — the  Saviour  will 
be  put  to  death:  "Go  and  tell  that  fox:  Behold  I 
cast  out  devils  and  do  cures  to-day  and  to-morrow, 
and  the  third  day  I  am  consummated."  He  repeats 
what  He  had  several  times  told  His  Apostles :  Jeru- 
salem is  speedily  to  see  His  end  ;  but  meantime  He 
is  Master  of  His  own  movements:  "Nevertheless  I 
must  walk  to-day,  and  to-morrow,  and  the  day  follow- 
ing, because  it  cannot  be  that  a  prophet  die  out  of 
Jerusalem." 


LESSONS  OF  MERCY.  473 

Jesus  adds  a  bitter  reproach  to  the  Holy  City, 
one  that  He  will  repeat  and  enlarge  upon  at  the 
solemn  moment  of  His  last  entry  there.  How  the 
name  of  the  City,  a  talisman  to  every  Jew,  must  have 
thrilled  all  their  hearts  as  the  sorrowful  longing  in  the 
tones  of  Jesus  sank  into  their  ears.  How  His  own 
soul  must  have  been  racked  with  the  conflict  of  love 
and  disappointment  as  He  addressed  the  Holy  City  : 
"Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  that  killest  the  prophets  and 
stonest  them  that  are  sent  to  thee  !  How  often  would 
I  have  gathered  thy  children,  as  the  bird  doth  her 
brood  under  her  wings,  and  thou  wouldst  not !  Be- 
hold your  house  shall  be  left  to  you  desolate.  And  I 
say  to  you  that  you  shall  not  see  Me  till  the  time 
come,  when  you  shall  say  :  Blessed  is  He  that  cometh 
in  the  name  of  the  L,ord." 


CHAPTER   IvXXV. 

LESSONS    OF  MERCY. — THE    LOST  GROAT. — THE    PRODI- 
GAL  SON. 

Luke  xv.  1-32. 

FROM  these  sad  topics,  and  dropping  the  tone  of 
admonition,  Jesus  turned  again  to  His  favorite  theme, 
the  mercy  of  God  to  sinners.  Nothing  the  Jews 
could  do  was  able  to  prevent  His  coming  back  to  it. 
Mercy  was  His  bread  and  meat ;  love  was  the  in- 
spiration of  Jesus. 

Here  in  the  Perea  He  repeated  the  parable  of  the 
lost  sheep  which  He  had  previously  given  in  Galilee. 
It  was  caused  by  the  coming  to  Him  of  a  group  of 
publicans  and  other  outcasts.  The  Saviour  bent 
towards  them  with  pity,  all  the  greater  because  the 
stricter  sect  of  Jews  were  offended  at  His  not  exclud- 


474 


"  REJOICE   WITH   ME  !  " 

Now  the  publicans  and  sinners  drew 
near  unto  him  to  hear  him  And  the 
Pharisees  and  the  Scribes  murmured,  say- 
ing: This  man  receiveth  sinners  and  eateth 
with  them.  And  he  spoke  to  them  this 
parable,  saying:  What  man  of  you  that 
hath  an  hundred  sheep,  and  if  he  shall 
lose  one  of  them,  doth  he  not  leave  the 
ninety-nine  in  the  desert,  and  go  after  that 
which  was  lost  until  he  find  it ;  and  when 
he  has  found  it,  lay  it  upon  his  shoulders 
rejoicing ;  and  coming  home,  call  to- 
gether his  friends  and  neighbors,  saying  to 
them :  Rejoice  with  me,  because  I  have 
found  my  sheep  that  was  lost  ?  I  say  to 
you,  that  even  so  there  shall  be  joy  in 
Heaven  upon  one  sinner  that  doth  penance, 
more  than  upon  ninety-nine  just  who  need 
not  penance. 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

ing  them.     He  taught  the  difference 
between  these  self-righteous  men  and 
the   glorious   angels.       The   angels 
tolerate  sinners,  they  are  not  asham- 
ed of  them  ;  nay,  their  joy  is  greater 
over  the  repentance  of  a  sinner  than 
over  the  stainless  virtue  of  the  inno- 
cent.    In  this  He  teaches  the  inter- 
vention of  the  angels  in  human  af- 
fairs.     They  too  are  our  Saviour's 
helpers  in  saving  souls ;  they  know 
our  sinfulness,  they   counsel   us   to 
repent,  they  rejoice  at  our  salvation. 
Jesus   added    the    illustration   of    the    Lost    Groat. 
How  singular  a  charity  in  the  Bternal  God  to  search 
for   a  loathsome  sinner   as  a   poor  woman  does   for   a 
lost  coin.     God   lights  a  candle  in  the 
dark   cavern  of   the   sinner's  soul   and 
shows   him  the  brink   of  the  deep   pit, 
the  lurid  flames,  the  long  ages  of  hor- 
ror.    And  then  He  turns  him  towards 
His   own   loving  face.     The   candle   is 
the   true    faith  :     the    knowledge    that 
God  is  good;  that  He  has  founded  His 
Church  for   sinners ;    that  He    has  en- 
riched   His   sacraments    with   the   pre- 
cious  blood  of  His  only  begotten  Son. 
God  lights  this  candle  by  the  word  of 
friendly  warning  from  a  devout  friend, 
the  tears  of  a  heart-broken  mother,  the 
death   of  a    patient   wife  or   a  beloved 
child,  the    stern  rebuke  or  kindly  ad- 
monition of  a  faithful  priest ;  or  by  the 
inspiration   of  the   Holy  Ghost   in  the 
•« Seek  diligently  until  she  find  it."       sting   of    conscience.      And   when   the 


LESSONS  OF  MERCY. 

candle  has  been  lighted  the  Ten 
Commandments  sweep  the  sinner's 
soul  like  a  sharp  broom.  Confes- 
sion, humble  and  sorrowful,  wins 
absolution,  and  Holy  Communion 
is  the  rejoicing  of  the  angels  with 
the  Heavenly  Father  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  sinner. 

The  literature  of  the  world 
has  nothing  so  beautiful  as  the 
vStory  of  the  Prodigal  Son.  In 
it  our  Saviour  tells  of  the  worst 
of  sons  in  rebellion  against  the 
best  of  fathers.  Having  painted 
the  black  guilt  in  the  son  in 
contrast  with  the  kindness  of 
the  father,  the  Master  follows 
the  wretched  young  fool  to  his 
riot  and  wickedness  and  shows 
the  end  of  it — disgrace,  poverty, 
starvation.  He  now  pictures  the  re- 
pentance. The  son  is  moved  to  re- 
turn to  his  father,  but  only  by  the 
lowest  motives.  He  is  not  stung  by 
a  sense  of  his  ingratitude,  by  the 
realization  of  the  suffering  he  has 
inflicted  on  his  father ;  no,  but  he  is 
starving.  His  own  material  needs 
are  what  force  him  to  return  and 
ask  for  pardon.  Yet  this  animal 
dread  of  pain  is  redeemed  by  one 
better  trait,  that  of  humility.  He 
is  absolutely  disgusted  with  himself, 
makes  no  claim  to  sonship,  will  be 
glad  to  be  taken  as  a  servant 


475 


THE  JOY  OF  THE  ANGELS. 

Or  what  woman  having  ten  groats,  if 
she  lose  one  groat  doth  not  light  a  candle 
and  sweep  the  house  and  seek  diligently, 
until  she  find  it  ?  And  when  she  hath 
found  it,  call  together  her  friends  and 
neighbors,  saying  :  Rejoice  with  me,  be- 
cause I  have  found  the  groat  which  I  had 
lost.  So  I  say  to  you,  there  shall  be  joy 
before  the  angels  of  God  upon  one  sinner 
doing  penance. 


The  husks  the  swine  did  eat.' 


"FATHER,  i  HAVE  SINNED." 
And  he  said  :  A  certain  man  had  two 
sons :  And  the  younger  of  them  said  to 
his  father :  Father,  give  me  the  portion  of 
substance  that  falleth  to  me  And  he 
divided  unto  them  his  substance.  And  not 
many  days  after,  the  younger  son  gather- 
ing all  together,  went  abroad  into  a  far 
country  :  and  there  wasted  his  substance 
living  riotously.  And  after  he  had  spent 
all,  there  came  a  mighty  famine  in  that 
country,  and  he  began  to  be  in  want.  And 
he  went,  and  cleaved  to  one  of  the  citizens 
of  that  country.  And  he  sent  him  into  his 
farm  to  feed  swine.  And  he  would  fain 
have  filled  his  belly  with  the  husks  the 
swine  did  eat ;  and  no  man  gave  unto 
him.  And  returning  to  himself,  he  said  : 
How  many  hired  servants  in  my  father's 
house  abound  with  bread,  and  I  here 
perish  with  hunger  ?  I  will  arise,  and  will 
go  to  my  father,  and  say  to  him  :  Father,  I 
have  sinned  against  heaven,  and  before 
thee  :  I  am  not  now  worthy  to  be  called 
thy  son  :  make  me  as  one  of  thy  hired 


476 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Meantime  the  father  has  never  abandoned  hope,  never 
allowed  his  mind  to  be  embittered,  is  constantly  on  the 
watch  for  his  son's  return,  and  finally  beholds  the  pro- 
digal wearily  creeping  towards  his  home.     The  scene 
that  follows  is  one  of  the  most  touching  ever  por- 
trayed :  the  embrace  upon  the  road,  the  seeming  un- 
consciousness on  the  father's  part  of  any  confession 
being  made,  the  immediate  restoration  to  sonship 
and  heirship,  its  public  celebration,  and  the 
loving  answer  to  the  envious  protest  of  the 
son   who  has  never  strayed. 

"And  There  perish  with  hunger."        In  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  there  are 

some  terrible  dogmas,  but  the  Par- 
able of  the  Prodigal  Son  is  the 
glorious  alternative  of  every  one 
of  them.  "Thy  mercy  is  above  all 
Thy  works."  There  is  a  deep  mys- 
tery in  -eternal  punishment ;  but  the 
mystery  of  divine  love  is  more  in- 
comprehensible than  that  of  hell. 
Jesus  mourns  the  sinner  as  a  father 
mourns  a  lost  child,  yea,  as  he 
weeps  over  the  dead  body  of  his 
son.  He  rejoices  with  all  heaven 
upon  the  repentance  of  a  sinner, 
as  a  parent  upon  the  restoration  of 
a  child  to  life. 


servants.  And  rising  up  he  came  to  his 
father.  And  when  he  was  yet  a  great  way 
off  his  father  saw  him,  and  was  moved 
with  compassion,  and  running  to  him,  fell 
upon  his  neck  and  kissed  him.  And  the 
son  said  to  him :  Father,  I  have  sinned 
against  heaven,  and  before  thee  :  I  am  not 
now  worthy  to  be  called  thy  son.  And 
the  father  said  to  his  servants  :  Bring  forth 
quickly  the  first  robe,  and  put  it  on  him, 
and  put  a  ring  on  his  hand,  and  shoes  on 
his  feet.  And  bring  hither  the  fatted  calf, 
and  kill  it,  and  let  us  eat  and  make  merry  : 
Because  this  my  son  was  dead,  and  is  come 
to  life  again  :  was  lost,  and  is  found.  And 
they  began  to  be  merry.  Now  his  elder 
son  was  in  the  field,  and  when  he  came 
and  drew  nigh  to  the  house,  he  heard 
music  and  dancing:  And  he  called  one  of 
the  servants,  and  asked  what  these  things 
meant.  And  he  said  to  him  :  Thy  brother 
is  come,  and  thy  father  hath  killed  the 
fatted  calf,  because  he  hath  received  him 
safe.  And  he  was  angry,  and  would  not 
go  in.  His  father  therefore  coming  out 
began  to  entreat  him.  And  he  answer- 
ing, said  to  his  father :  Behold,  for  so 
many  years  do  I  serve  thee,  and  I  have 
never  transgressed  thy  commandment,  and 
yet  thou  hast  never  given  me  a  kid  to  make 
merry  with  my  friends  :  But  as  soon  as 
this  thy  son  is  come,  who  hath  devoured 
his  substance  with  harlots,  thou  hast  killed 
for  him  the  fatted  calf.  But  he  said  to 
him  :  Son,  thou  art  always  with  me,  and 
all  I  have  is  thine.  But  it  was  fit  that  we 
should  make  merry  and  be  glad,  for  this 
thy  brother  was  dead,  and  is  come  to  life 
again ;  he  was  lost,  and  is  found. 


"  I  have 
sinned 

against 

heaven  ami 

before  thee 


THE  UNJUST  STEWARD. 


477 


CHAPTER 

THE   UNJUST  STEWARD. 

Luke  xvi.  1—15. 

IT  was  natural  that  Jesus  should  speak  to  the  people 
of  the  feverish  zeal  of  the  rich  to  gain  and  keep  their 
wealth.  In  our  own  day,  hardly  can  the  missionary 
who  carries  the  cross  of  Christ  to  the  heathen  outstrip 
the  priest  of  Mammon  carrying  opium  and  alcohol.  lr 
the  faithful  pastor  of  souls  gladly  risks  his  life  at  the 
bedside  of  the  cholera  patient,  the  votary  of  money  as 
gladly  shortens  his  life  in  the  wild  whirl  of  the  stock 
exchange.  Men  of  money  spend  more  time,  waste 
more  vitality,  study  out  more  expedients  to  win 
dollars,  than  do  men  of  God  to  save  immortal  souls 
from  hell.  This  lesson — the  wonder  we  feel  at  the 
heroism  of  Mammon's  worshippers  and  shame  at  our 
own  shortcomings  in  the  work  of  God — our  Saviour 
taught  by  the  parable  of  the  Unjust  Steward, 
which,  for  an  obvious  reason,  was  addressed  to 
His  disciples  only. 

1  '  There  was  a  certain  rich  man  who  had 
a  steward,  and  the  same  was   accused   unto 
l.i.ii  that  he  had  wasted  his  goods."     God  is 
meant  by  the  master  in  this  parable,  for  He 
is  the  owner  of  the  world  and  of  all  it  con- 
tains;   He  made  it,  He   preserves   it   every 
moment.     Those  who    possess  this    world's 
goods  are  the  stewards  whom  God  has  chosen 
to  administer  His  property  for  the  best  good 
of  the  greatest  number,  they  themselves 
being  made  secure  of  plenty   for  their 
own  use  according  to  the  social  state  in 
which    Providence    has    placed    them. 


"  He  vras  lost,  and  is  found." 


478 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Their  chief  duty  is  to  employ  their  Master's  pro- 
perty according  to  His  purpose,  which  is  to  advance 
His  honor  and  the  happiness  of  His  people.  The  rich 
man  who  uses  the  portion  of  God's  wealth  committed  to 
him  as  if  it  were  his  own  and  as  if  he  had  a  right  to  do 
as  he  pleases  with  it,  who  spends  it  in  mere  luxury, 
prodigality,  or  display,  who  does  not  seek  and  find 
God's  will  in  using  it,  sins  against  his  L,ord  and  against 
his  I^ord's  people.  He  forfeits  his  place. 

"And  He  called  him  and  He 
said  to  him  :  How  is  it  that  I  hear 
this  of  thee  ?  give  an  account  of 
thy  stewardship,  for  now  tkcxu  canst 
be  steward  no  longer. ' '  The  steward 
is  stripped  of  his  authority,  the  rich 
man  is  made  poor.  But  he  has  still 
a  moment  for  scheming.  The  mas- 
ter's books  and  accounts  are  in  his 
possession  ;  although  he  knows  that 
he  is  bankrupt,  others  still  think  him 
to  be  solvent.  He  has  his  lawyers, 
who  can  invoke  the  law's  delay.  He 
can  still  borrow  money  upon  the 
credit  of  a  fortune  he  knows  to  be 
gone.  He  can  betray  trust  reposed 
in  him.  Our  Saviour  describes  the 
trick  this  steward  played,  that  of 
corrupting  his  master's  debtors.  He 
lay  awake  of  nights  ;  he  raced  the 
whole  country  over  ;  he  labored  and 
schemed,  he  bribed  and  threatened ;  he  must  do  any- 
thing and  everything,  for  if  he  is  thrown  upon  the 
world  for  a  living  it  means  either  the  shame  of  honest 
begging  or  the  toil  of  honest  labor.  "  To  dig  I  am  un- 
able, to  beg  I  am  ashamed.  I  know  what  I  will  do, 


"  GIVE  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THY  STEWARDSHIP. " 

,  And  he  said  to  his  disciples  :  There  was 
1  a  certain  rich  man  who  had  a  steward,  and 
the  same  was  accused  unto  him,  that  he 
|had  wasted  his  goods.  And  he  called  him, 
Sand  he  said  to  him  :  How  is  it  that  I  hear 
this  of  thee  ?  give  an  account  of  thy 
stewardship,  for  now  thou  canst  be  steward 
no  longer.  And  the  steward  said  within 
himself:  What  shall  I  do,  because  my 
lord  taketh  away  from  me  the  stewardship  ? 
To  dig  I  am  unable,  to  beg  I  am  ashamed  ; 
I  know  what  I  will  do,  that  when  I  shall  be 
j  removed  from  the  stewardship  they  may 
(receive  me  into  their  houses.  Therefore 
calling  together  every  one  of  his  lord's 
j  debtors,  he  said  to  the  first:  How  much 
I  dost  thou  owe  my  lord  ?  But  he  said  :  An 
I  hundred  barrels  of  oil.  And  he  said  to 
;him:  Take  thy  bill  and  sit  down  quickly 
i  and  write,  fifty.  Then  he  said  to  another  : 
iAnd  how  much  dost  thou  owe?  Who 
said  :  An  hundred  quarters  of  wheat.  He 
said  to  him :  Take  thy  bill  and  write, 
eighty.  And  the  lord  commended  the  un- 
just steward,  forasmuch  as  he  had  done 
wisely,  for  the  children  of  this  world  are 
wiser  in  their  generation  than  the  children 
of  light.  And  I  say  to  you  :  Make  unto 
you  friends  of  the  mammon  of  iniquity, 
that  when  you  shall  fail  they  may  receive 
;you  into  everlasting  dwellings. 


THE  UNJUST  STEWARD.  479 

that  when   I  shall  be  removed   from  the  stewardship 
they  may  receive  me  into  their  houses." 

Having  injured  his  master  by  squandering 
his  goods,  he  now  commits  a  double  crime  : 
he  does  him  a  parting  wrong  by  robbing  him 
of  a  portion  of  his  just  dues  ;  he  corrupts  the 
debtors  by  dividing  with  them  the  portion 
fraudulently  obtained ;  and  he  gives  receipts, 
signs  his  master's  name,  and  so  becomes  se- 
cure  by  this  thievish  partnership  with  the  dis-  ,^e^£the  first .  HOW 

honest  debtors.  much  dost  thou  owe  my  lord?" 

Shrewdness  is  a  quality  rather  of  successful  rogues 
than  of  fervent  Christians.  When  the  steward  had  got 
away,  and  when  the  master  found  out  his  final  villany 
and  how  he  had  managed  to  hedge  it  about  by  legal 
tricks,  he  could  not  help  admiring  the  scoundrel's 
cleverness:  "And  the  lord  commended  the  unjust 
steward  forasmuch  as  he  had  done  wisely, ' '  that  is  to 
say,  cunningly.  Our  Saviour  then  enforces  the  lesson : 
"For  the  children  of  this  world  are  wiser  in  their 
generation  than  the  children  of  light," — wiser,  keener 
on  the  scent,  more  vigorous  in  pushing  on,  in  crowding 
aside  obstacles,  all  for  money  too,  and  for  earthly 
power,  things  which  perish  and  are  gone  in  a  day  : 
while  the  children  of  light  seem  to  grope  in  dark- 
ness, and  to  struggle  but  feebly  for  the  boon  of  life 
eternal. 

But  are  there  no  rich  men  who  are  the  Saviour's 
friends  ?  Are  there  no  just  stewards  ?  Yes,  there  are 
some,  and  they  are  dear  to  God.  They  have  in  their 
wealth  a  special  grace,  and  Jesus  points  it  out  to  them. 
They  can  forge  their  gold  into  keys  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven :  by  their  gifts  to  the  poor,  to  religion,  to  edu- 
cation, for  the  common  comfort  of  their  fellow-men. 
What  if  wealth  be  the  false  god  Mammon ;  even  so,  it 


480  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

may  be  made  to  stand  in  good  stead  for  eternity.  As 
riches  are  a  help  to  the  unjust  steward,  they  may 
equally  be  made  a  help  to  the  just  steward  :  "  And  I 
say  to  you  :  Make  unto  you  friends  of  the  mammon  of 
iniquity,  that  when  you  shall  fail  they  may  receive  you 
into  everlasting  dwellings." 

The  further  application  of  this  parable  concerns  the 
higher,  or  rather  the  more  intimate,  motives  of  the 
spiritual  life.  For  if  one  should  object,  naturally 
enough,  that  at  best  the  custody  of  this  world's  goods 
is  on  the  lower  plane  of  duty,  that  the  real  question  is 
about  the  right  heart,  the  intention  and  purpose,  the 
faith  and  the  love  of  the  Christian,  our  Blessed  Re- 
deemer answers  that  fidelity  in  the  lower  order  of  duty 
is  the  test  of  fidelity  in  the  higher.  Obedience  in  little 
things  can  be  motived  by  as  strong  a  love  as  that  which 
incites  to  greater  things:  "He  that  is  faithful  in  that 
wrhich  is  least,  is  faithful  also  in  that  which  is  greater, 
and  he  that  is  unjust  in  that  which  is  little,  is  unjust 
also  in  that  which  is  greater.  If  therefore  you  have 
not  been  faithful  in  the  unjust  mammon,  who  will  trust 
you  in  that  which  is  true  ?  And  if  you  have  not  been 
faithful  in  that  which  is  another's,  who  will  give  you 
that  which  is  your  own?  " 

St.  Luke  takes  occasion  here  to  reveal  an  additional 
reason  for  the  enmity  of  the  Pharisees ;  besides  being 
proud  and  hypocritical  they  were  also  covetous : 
"  They  derided  Him.  And  He  said  to  them  :  You  are 
they  who  justify  yourselves  before  men,  but  God  know- 
eth  your  hearts,  for  that  which  is  high  to  men  is  an 
abomination  before  God." 


DIVES  AND  LAZARUS. 


CHAPTER 

DIVES   AND    LAZARUS. 

Luke  xvi.  19-31. 

THIS  is  the  awful  parable  of  the  rich,  proud  glutton, 
tormented  in  the  flames  of  hell,  craving  for  a  drop  of 
water  from  the  despised  beggar  whom  from  afar  he 
beholds  in  Paradise.  It  is  the  reversal  of  a  pitiful  con- 
dition too  often  seen  upon  this  earth  ; 
the  wretched  pauper  lying  at  the 
door  of  the  sensualist  while  a  ban- 
quet is  going  on  within ;  the  dogs 
licking  his  sores,  his  very  soul  hun- 
gering for  even  the  crumbs  of  the 
feast  whose  noisy  revelry  mocks  his 
fainting  ear.  The  parable  is  a  ter- 
lible  scene,  and  is  painted  with  such 
divine  power  that  every  syllable 
strikes  the  heart  and  makes  it 
tremble. 

The  contrast  is  perfect.  There 
at  his  rich  feast  sits  the  sensualist 
amid  his  guests  and  his  servants. 
He  is  one  man  in  a  million.  The 
rest  of  men  are  either  ordinary  well- 
to-do  citizens,  humble  workmen  and 
farmers,  or  they  are  paupers,  beg- 
gars, and  outcasts.  Many  men  and 
women  are  tortured  by  the  lack  of 
necessary  food,  shamed  and  rejected 
by  all  but  a  few  of  the  more  tender- 
hearted. The  poor  beggar  finds 
company  even  in  a  dog,  and  is  often 
clung  to  by  the  beast  when  men 


THE   RICH    GLUTTON    AND    THE    STARVING 
BEGGAR. 

There  was  a  certain  rich  man,  who  was 
clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen :  and 
feasted  sumptuously  every  day.  And  there 
was  a  certain  beggar  named  Lazarus,  who 
lay  at  his  gate,  full  of  sores,  desiring  to 
be  filled  with  the  crumbs  that  fell  from 
the  rich  man's  table,  and  no  one  did  give 
him  ;  moreover  the  dogs  came  and  licked 
his  sores.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  the 
beggar  died,  and  was  carried  by  the  angels 
into  Abraham's  bosom.  And  the  rich 
man  also  died  :  and  he  was  buried  in  hell. 
And  lifting  up  his  eyes  when  he  was  in 
torments,  he  saw  Abraham  afar  off,  and 
Lazarus  in  his  bosom.  And  he  cried,  and 
said :  Father  Abraham,  have  mercy  on 
me.  and  send  Lazarus  that  he  may  dip 
the  tip  of  his  finger  in  water,  to  cool  my 
tongue,  for  I  am  tormented  in  this  flame. 
And  Abraham  said  to  him  :  Son,  remember 
that  thou  didst  receive  good  things  in  thy 
life-time,  and  likewise  Lazarus  evil  things: 
but  now  he  is  comforted,  and  thou  art 
tormented.  And  besides  all  this,  between 
us  and  you  there  is  fixed  a  great  chaos  :  so 
that  they  who  would  pass  from  hence  to 
you,  cannot,  nor  from  thence  come  hither 
And  he  said  :  Then,  father,  I  beseech  thee 
that  thou  wouldst  send  him  to  my  father's 
house,  for  I  have  five  brethren,  that  he 
may  testify  unto  them,  lest  they  also  come 
into  this  place  of  torments.  And  Abra- 
ham said  to  him:  They  have  Moses  and 
the  prophets  ;  let  them  hear  them.  But 
he  said  :  No.  father  Abraham,  but  if  one 
went  to  them  from  the  dead,  they  will 
do  penance.  And  he  said  to  him :  If 
they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets, 
neither  will  they  believe  if  one  rise  again 
from  the  dead. 


482  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

have  abandoned  him.  The  rich  glutton  counts  his 
money ;  he  lords  it  over  his  hirelings,  gorges  with 
meat  and  drink,  despises  dirty  beggars  and  tries  to 
forget  that  they  exist — and  he  is  happy.  The  poor 
tramp  counts  his  sores,  weeps  in  his  lonesomeness, 
caresses  his  affectionate  cur,  faints  with  starvation  ;  but 
if  he  be  a  Christian,  he  accounts  his  misery  as  God's 
holy  will,  and  though  always  suffering,  does  not  repine, 
and  he  neither  hates  nor  envies  any  one.  He  creeps  to 
the  rich  man's  door,  and  gets  a  morsel  now  and  then 
from  a  kindly  servant ;  and  some  stormy  night  the 
howling  of  his  dog  tells  that  he  is  dead:  away  with 
him  to  the  Potter's  Field !  But  there  are  other  rich 
persons  who  have  stood  by  him,  rich  angels  of  the 
Almighty  God,  servants  of  the  All-owning  God. 
These  embrace  his  soul,  are  honored  by  its  friendship, 
are  glad  of  its  ecstatic  cry  of  joy,  and  bear  it  away  in 
triumph  to  the  company  of  Abraham,  he  too  another 
sort  of  rich  man,  who  in  his  day  always  loved  and 
served  the  poor. 

"  And  the  rich  man  also  died."     He  chokes  to  death 
with  a  surfeit ;  or  he  dies  suddenly  from  paralysis, 
brought   on    by   dissipation ;    a   jealous    mistress 
poisons  or  a  jealous  rival  stabs  him.     Anyway  he 
dies ;    though  he  feast  sumptuously  every  day  for 
a  hundred  years,  at  last  he  dies.     And  he  has  a 
gorgeous  funeral.     But   nevertheless   he   is  cast 

into  hell,  sunk  so 
deep    into    it   that 
the  Master  says  he 
is   buried  therein. 
Yet    he  can   look 
across  the  vacant 
chaos  which  di- 

"Desiring  to  be  filled.with  the  crumbs  that  fell  from  the  rich  man's  table.'*  VldeS    his  abode 


DIVES  AND  LAZARUS.  483 

from  Paradise  ;  he  can  hear  the  canticles  of  eternal  joy. 
Oh,  what  a  spectacle  he  beholds  !  Lazarus  the  beggar 
in  Abraham's  bosom!  "Give  me  a  drop  of  water,'* 
he  cries;  "give  it  by  the  beggar's  charity,  for  I  am 
tormented  in  this  flame."  Then  follows  the  awful 
dialogue,  preceded  by  the  fateful  word,  Remember! 
"  Remember  that  thou  didst  receive  good  things  in  thy 
life- time."  The  hard-hearted  sensualist  was  given 
many  years,  and  allowed  to  waste  them  ;  the  true  reli- 
gion, and  allowed  to  despise  it;  the  goods  of  his 
Master,  and  allowed  to  squander  them ;  given,  indeed, 
many  privileges  :  but  the  boon  of  forgetting  these  shall 
never  be  his.  He  must  now  be  clothed  in  the  purple 
of  fire  and  the  raiment  of  remorse  ;  he  must  feast  on 
the  fiery  memory  of  his  cruel  and  hateful  life  for  ever. 

"A  great  gulf  is  fixed  between  us  and  you,"  says 
Abraham,  "so  that  they  who  would  pass  from  hence 
to  you  cannot,  nor  from  thence  come  hither."  That 
gulf  or  chaos  is  eternity. 

Then  what?  Is  he  silenced  ?  No.  He  would  save 
those  who  in  his  own  way  were  dear  to  him ;  or  per- 
haps his  five  brothers  had  been  corrupted  by  himself, 
who  was  the  eldest,  and  he  dreaded  a  five-fold  hell 
if  they  came  to  take  vengeance  on  him.  He  pleads 
again  :  let  Lazarus  be  sent  as  a  messenger !  Alas !  he 
was  a  messenger  bnce,  as  every  poor  man  is  God's 
messenger  to  the  rich  ;  but  he  had  failed.  And  be- 
sides this,  his  going  even  from  the  dead  would  not 
avail.  It  would  but  deepen  the  guilt  of  the  five 
brothers,  for  they  would  reject  the  call  to  repentance. 
Had  they  not  had  calls  enough  ?  Did  they  not  have 
the  true  religion  ?  Did  they  not  believe  in  Moses  and 
the  prophets,  who  in  a  thousand  ways  commanded  and 
counselled  and  exhorted  and  entreated  the  rich  to 
cherish  and  help  the  poor  and  to  remember  the  life  to 


4$4  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

come  ?  Moses  and  the  prophets  stood  for  God  better 
than  any  returning  spirit  could.  If  his  brethren  ' '  will 
not  hear  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will  they 
believe  if  one  rise  again  from  the  dead." 

Indeed,  there  were  many  men  who  knew  our 
Saviour  Himself,  who  saw  Him  heal  the  blind  and 
deaf  and  lame,  who  saw  Him  raise  the  dead  to  life  by 
a  mere  word,  yet  who  not  only  refused  to  believe  Him 
but  strove  to  put  Him  to  death,  and  all  the  more 
eagerly  because  of  His  miracles. 

And  thus  ended  the  most  terrible  of  the  discourses 
of  Jesus ;  one  which  has  saved  countless  multitudes 
of  men  and  women  from  the  life  and  death  of  the 
sensualist. 


"  Would  not  so 
much  as  lift  up 
his  eyes." 


CHAPTER   LXXVIII. 

I,ESSONS      IN      HUMIUTY. — THE     PHARISEE 
PUBLICAN. 


AND     THE 


Luke  xvii.  5-10,  and  xviii. 

"  AND  the  Apostles  said  to  the  Lord  :  Lord,  increase 
our  faith."  Probably  the  petition  was  dictated  by 
selfish  motives.  The  Apostles  may  have  asked  this 
favor  after  one  of  those  expeditions  into  the  surround- 
ing country  in  which  they  had  failed  in  their  endeavor 
to  work  miracles.  To  show  them  how  this  high  super- 
natural gift  is  increased  by  the  practice  of  the  lowly 
virtue  of  humility,  our  Saviour  taught,  first,  that  faith 
was  the  all-powerful  means  of  obtaining  miracles,  and 
second,  that  increase  of  faith  as  well  as  of  every  virtue 
has  its  root  in  humility : 

' 'And  the  Lord  said:  If  you  had  faith  like  to  a 
grain  of  mustsrd-seed,  you  might  say  to  this  mulberry- 
tree,  Be  thou  rooted  up,  and  be  thou  transplanted  into 
the  sea  :  and  it  would  obey  you.  But  which  of  you 


t£S$OJVS  IN  HUMILITY. 


485 


"  I  AM   NOT  AS  THE  REST  OF  MEN." 

And  to  some  who  trusted  in  themselves 
as  just,  and  despised  others,  he  spoke  also 
this  parable :  Two  men  went  up  into  the 
temple  to  pray  :  the  one  a  Pharisee,  and 
the  other  a  publican.  The  Pharisee  stand- 
ing prayed  thus  with  himself  :  O  God,  I 
give  thee  thanks  that  I  am  not  as  the  rest 
of  men,  extortioners,  unjust,  adulterers, 
as  also  is  this  publican.  I  fast  twice  in  a 
week :  I  give  tithes  of  all  that  I  possess. 
And  the  publican  standing  afar  off  would 
not  so  much  as  lift  up  his  eyes  towards 
heaven  :  but  struck  his  breast,  saying :  O 
God,  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner.  I  say  to 
you,  this  man  went  down  into  his  house 
justified  rather  than  the  other;  because 
every  one  that  exalteth  himself,  shall  be 
humbled  :  and  he  that  humbleth  himself, 
shall  be  exalted. 


having  a  servant  ploughing  or  feed- 
ing cattle,  will  say  to  him  when  he 
is  come  from  the  field  :  Immediately 
go,  sit  down  to  meat :  And  will  not 
rather  say  to  him :  Make  ready  my 
supper,  and  gird  thyself,  and  serve 
me  whilst  I  eat  and  drink,  and  after- 
wards thou  shalt  eat  and  drink  ? 
Doth  he  thank  that  servant  for  do- 
ing the  things  which  he  commanded 
him?  I  think  not.  So  you  also, 
when  you  shall  have  done  all  these 
things  that  are  commanded  you, 
say  :  We  are  unprofitable  servants  ;  we  have  done  that 
which  we  ought  to  do." 

A  very  severe  rebuke,  showing   that  we  should  be 
on  our  guard  lest  on  pretence  of  serv- 
ing   God   we    unconsciously   strive   to 
make  God  serve  us. 

The  celebrated  picture  of  the  Phari- 
see and  the  publican  praying  in  the 
Temple  is  the  completion  of  this  lesson. 
Sharper  contrast  there  could  hardly  be. 
The  Pharisee  was  the  true  Israelite  in 
race,  in  faith,  and  in  station ;  the  pub- 
lican was  a  traitor  to  his  people  and  an 
apostate  from  his  religion.  The  prayer 
of  the  Pharisee,  based  on  his  fulness 
of  merits,  was  a  mere  devotional  boast; 
that  of  the  publican  was  the  cry  of  a 
broken  heart.  The  result  was  a  total 
reversal  of  their  relative  positions.  The 
publican  becomes  pleasing  to  God,  is 
pardoned  and  made  righteous;  the 
Pharisee,  with  all  his  orthodoxy,  is  not 


'  I  am  not  as  the  rest  of 


486  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

simply  no  whit  better  for  his  prayer,  but  even  in  the 
very  act  of  it  adds  to  the  weight  of  sin  already  ac- 
cumulated yet  other  acts  of  pride,  censoriousness,  and 
uncharity.  It  is  pitiful  that  the  heritage  of  the  true 
faith,  with  its  attendant  good  fortune  of  orthodox  name, 
family,  and  training,  is  often  the  occasion  of  spiritual 
pride.  What  makes  some  men  humble  makes  other 
men  haughty.  And  notice  how  steadfastly  the  Master 
returns  again  and  yet  again  to  the  two-fold  essence  of 
His  Gospel,  the  lesson  of  humility  and  of  love : 

Sanctity  ' '  by  law  established  ' '  is  one  thing  ;  sanc- 
tity as  fruit  of  the  fear  and  love  of  God  is  quite  another. 
Comparison  between  ourselves  and  others  cannot  be 
instituted  without  danger  of  the  sin  of  pride.  It  is  a 
fact,  a  monstrous  fact,  that  some  persons  cannot  even 
pray  without  thinking  injury  to  their  neighbors.  An- 
other curious  paradox  is,  that  some  followers  of  Christ 
can  only  be  saved  by  losing  for  a  time  the  grace  of  God 
and  falling  into  shameful  sins.  From  these  they  can 
return  by  humble  penance ;  from  the  sins  of  spiritual 
pride  towards  which  they  had  unconsciously  been 
hastening  they  could  not  have  been  saved. 

Humility  plants  the  germs  of  justification  in  a  sinful 
soul ;  pride  plants  the  germs  of  damnation  in  a 
righteous  soul. 

CHAPTER  LXXIX. 

THE    RAISING   OF   I,AZARUS    FROM    THE    DEAD. 

John  xi.  1-46. 

JESUS  gave  His  reasons  for  calling  Lazarus  back  to 
life.  They  were  two  :  first,  He  "  loved  Martha,  and  her 
sister  Mary,  and  Lazarus"  ;  second,  the  advancement 
of  His  mission ;  ' '  that  the  Son  of  God  may  be  glori- 
fied," and,  as  He  said  to  His  Apostles,  "that  you  may 


THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS. 


487 


believe."  L/et  us  note  the  union  of 
these  two  motives,  for  it  throws  light 
upon  the  human  character  of  the  Son 
of  God. 

His  miracles  gave  Him  His 
standing.  They  were  the  power  of 
Jehovah,  and  they  took  the  place  in 
the  New  Law  of  the  marvels  and 
portents  of  the  Old,  such  as  the  part- 
ing of  the  Red  Sea,  the  miraculous 
manna,  the  thunders  of  Sinai.  But 
unlike  the  miracles  of  the  olden 
time,  those  of  the  Messias  were 
usually  wrought  through  love  for 
particular  persons.  For  the  whole 
world,  indeed,  Jesus  was  transfig- 
ured and  rose  from  the  dead.  But 
for  a  widowed  mother's  joy  at  Nairn 
He  said  :  "Young  man,  I  bid  thee 
arise  ' ' ;  for  a  heart-broken  father 
He  touched  the  damsel's  hand  and 
she  awoke  to  life ;  and  now,  be- 
cause He  loves  Martha  and  Mary, 
He  will  break  the  tomb,  He  will 
crowd  back  the  advancing  rotten- 
ness of  the  corpse,  He  will  restore 
Lazarus  alive  to  his  sisters.  Can 
we  mistake  the  meaning  of  all  this  ? 
Jesus  would  prove  His  own  divinity 
by  proving  the  divinity  of  the  lovely 
virtue  of  human  sympathy. 

The  narrative  of  St.  John  is  so 
touching  that  we  shall  give  the 
whole  of  it  unbroken.  The  Master 
and  His  Apostles  were  somewhere 


"LAZARUS,    COME  FORTH  1" 

Now  there  was  a  certain  man  sick  named 
Lazarus,  of  Bethania,  of  the  town  of  Mary 
and  of  Martha  her  sister.  (And  Mary  was 
she  that  anointed  the  Lord  with  ointment 
and  wiped  his  feet  with  her  hair  :  whose 
brother  Lazarus  was  sick.)  His  sisters 
therefore  sent  to  him,  saying :  Lord,  be- 
hold, he  whom  thou  lovest  is  sick.  And 
Jesus  hearing  it,  said  to  them  :  This  sick- 
ness is  not  unto  death,  but  for  the  glory  of 
God  :  that  the  Son  of  God  maybe  glorified 
by  it.  Now  Jesus  loved  Martha,  and  her 
sister  Mary,  and  Lazarus.  When  he  had 
heard  therefore  that  he  was  sick,  he  still 
remained  in  the  same  place  two  days. 
Then  after  that  he  said  to  his  disciples  : 
Let  us  go  into  Judea  again.  The  disciples 
say  to  him  :  Rabbi,  the  Jews  but  now 
sought  to  stone  thee :  and  goest  thou 
thither  again  ?  Jesus  answered  :  Are  there 
not  twelve  hours  of  the  day  ?  If  a  man 
walk  in  the  day,  he  stumbleth  not,  because 
he  seeth  the  light  of  this  world  :  But  if  he 
walk  in  the  night  he  stumbleth,  because 
the  light  is  not  in  him.  These  things  he 
said :  and  after  that  he  said  to  them : 
Lazarus  our  friend  sleepeth  ;  but  I  go  that 
I  may  awake  him  out  of  sleep.  His  dis- 
ciples therefore  said  :  Lord,  if  he  sleep,  he 
shall  do  well.  But  Jesus  spoke  of  his 
death  ;  and  they  thought  that  he  spoke  of 
the  repose  of  sleep.  Then  therefore 
Jesus  said  to  them  plainly:  Lazarus  is 
dead  ;  and  I  am  glad  for  your  sakes,  that 
I  was  not  there,  that  you  may  believe  :  but 
let  us  go  to  him.  Thomas  therefore,  who 
is  called  Didymus,  said  to  his  fellow-disci- 
ples :  Let  us  also  go,  that  we  may  die  with 
him.  Jesus  therefore  came  and  found  that 
he  had  been  four  days  already  in  the  grave. 
(Now  Bethania  was  near  Jerusalem,  about 
fifteen  furlongs  off.)  And  many  of  the 
Jews  were  come  to  Martha  and  Mary,  to 
comfort  them  concerning  their  brother. 
Martha  therefore,  as  soon  as  she  heard  that 
Jesus  was  come,  went  to  meet  him  ;  but 
Mary  sat  at  home.  Martha  therefore  said 
to  Jesus:  Lord,  if  thou  hadst  been  here, 
my  brother  had  not  died.  But  now  also  I 
know  that  whatsoever  thou  wilt  ask  of 
God,  God  will  give  it  thee.  Jesus  saith 
to  her :  Thy  brother  shall  rise  again. 
Martha  saith  to  him  :  I  know  that  he  shall 
rise  again  in  the  resurrection  at  the  last 
day.  Jesus  said  to  her  :  I  am  the  resur- 
rection and  the  life  :  he  that  believeth  in 
me  although  he  be  dead,  shall  live  :  And 
every  one  that  liveth,  and  believeth  in  me, 


488 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


"If  thou  hadst  been 
here,  my  brother  had 
not  died." 


beyond   the  Jordan  when  the  sorrowful  message 
arrived  from  Bethany. 

The  resurrecting  of  L/azarus  was  a  mighty 
stroke  of  power,  but  it  was  fatal  to  Jesus.  The 
Samson  of  the  New  L,aw  in  removing  the  stone 
from  the  door  of  that  tomb  loosened  the  keystone 
of  the  arch  above  it.  The  conspirators  at  Jeru- 
salem felt  now  that  Jesus  must  be  arrested,  and 
by  some  means  put  to  death.  Their  malignant 
minds  could  not  have  imagined  a  more  violent 
contrast  to  themselves  than  that  of  this  loving 
figure.  The  more  powerful  His  love  grew  to  stir  men's 
minds  to  affection,  reaching  into  their  very  graves  and 
snatching  their  decaying  bodies  back 
to  life,  the  more  bitter  grew  the 
hatred  of  His  unbelieving  enemies. 
It  is  probable  that  L/azarus  died 
the  day  the  messenger  hurried  away 
to  Jesus  with  the  news  of  his  severe 
illness.  Two  days  more  of  delay, 
purposely  taken  by  the  Master,  made 
three,  and  the  time  used  in  reaching 
Bethany  made  the  fourth  day  in- 
tervening between  the  death  and  the 
miracle. 

Jesus  was  not  able  to  resist  that 
message:  "  Lord,  behold  he  whom 
Thou  lovest  is  sick  " — a  woman's 
plea  to  a  heart  more  tender  than  a 
woman's.  He  was  bound  to  go  to 
Bethany.  He  delayed  only  to  work 
a  greater  miracle  after  arriving. 
When  His  disciples  protested  against 
running  into  danger  by  thus  return- 
ing nearer  to  Jerusalem,  He  answered 


shall  not  die  for  ever.  Believest  thou  this? 
She  saith  to  him  :  Yea,  Lord,  I  have  be- 
lieved that  thou  art  Christ  the  Son  of  the 
living  God,  who  art  come  into  this  world. 
And  when  she  had  said  these  things,  she 
went,  and  called  her  sister  Mary  secretly, 
saying:  The  Master  is  come  and  calleth 
for  thee.  She,  as  soon  as  she  heard  this, 
riseth  quickly  and  cometh  to  him.  For 
Jesus  was  not  yet  come  into  the  town  ; 
but  he  was  still  in  that  place  where  Martha 
had  met  him.  The  Jews  therefore  who 
were  with  her  in  the  house  and  comforted 
her,  when  they  saw  Mary  that  she  rose  up 
speedily  and  went  out,  followed  her,  say- 
ing :  She  goeth  to  the  grave,  to  weep 
there.  When  Mary  therefore  was  come 
where  Jesus  was,  seeing  him,  she  fell  down 
at  his  feet,  and  saith  to  him  :  Lord,  if 
thou  hadst  been  here,  my  brother  had  not 
died.  Jesus  therefore,  when  he  saw  her 
weeping,  and  the  Jews  that  were  come 
with  her,  weeping,  groaned  in  the  spirit, 
and  troubled  himself,  and  said :  Where 
have  you  laid  him  ?  They  say  to  him  : 
Lord,  come  and  see.  And  Jesus  wept. 
The  Jews  therefore  said  :  Behold  how  he 
loved  him.  But  some  of  them  said : 
Could  not  he  that  opened  the  eyes  of  the 
man  born  blind,  have  caused  that  this 
man  should  not  die  ?  Jesus  therefore  again 
groaning  in  himself,  cometh  to  the 
sepulchre :  Now  it  was  a  cave ;  and  a 
stone  was  laid  over  it.  Jesus  saith  :  Take 
away  the  stone.  Martha,  the  sister  of  him 
that  was  dead,  saith  to  him  :  Lord,  by  this 


time  he  stinketh,  for  he  is  now  of  four 
days.  Jesus  saith  to  her :  Did  not  I  say  to 
thee,  that  if  thou  believe,  thou  shalt  see 
the  glory  of  God  ?  They  took  therefore 
the  stone  away.  And  Jesus  lifting  up  his 
eyes  said :  Father,  I  give  thee  thanks  that 
thou  hast  heard  me.  And  I  knew  that 
thou  hearest  me  always,  but  because  of  the 
people  who  stand  about  have  I  said  it ; 
that  they  may  believe  that  thou  has  sent 
me.  When  he  had  said  these  things,  he 
cried  with  a  loud  voice :  Lazarus,  come 
forth.  And  presently  he  that  been  dead 
came  forth,  bound  feet  and  hands  with 
winding-bands,  and  his  face  was  bound 
about  with  a  napkin.  Jesus  said  to  them  : 
Loose  him  and  let  him  go.  Many  there- 
fore of  the  Jews  who  were  come  to  Mary 
and  Martha,  and  had  seen  the  things  that 
Jesus  did,  believed  in  him.  But  some  of 
them  went  to  the  Pharisees,  and  told  them 
the  things  that  Jesus  had  done. 


THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS.  489 

that  the  light  of  God's  will  should 
lead  Him,  "the  Light  of  this  world." 
Then  when  Jesus  insisted  that  His 
friend  called  and  He  could  not  re- 
fuse to  go,  Thomas  spoke  up,  a  heart 
inclined  to  doubt  but  yet  true  unto 
death  (for  perhaps  some  of  the  Apos- 
tles wanted  to  remain  where  they 
were,  letting  Jesus  go  and  return  in 
secrecy)  :  "  Let  us  also  go  that  we 
may  die  with  Him."  Thomas  felt 
that  the  shadows  were  deepening 
around  our  Saviour.  How  solemn 
that  moment,  when  for  the  first  time 
the  Apostles  were  brought  by  open  avowal  into  union 
with  their  Master  in  the  bond  of  death.  It  was  rather 
the  cry  of  affectionate  hearts  than  of  the  martyr's  faith, 
but  for  that  very  reason  must  it  not  have  sounded 
sweet  to  the  ears  of  Jesus,  who  desires  only  the  ' '  faith 
that  works  by  love  ' '  ? 

They  arrived  at  Bethany  the  fourth  day  after  the 
burial,   Lazarus,   according  to  Jewish  custom,   having 
been  placed  in  the  grave  before  sunset  of  the 
day   he  died.      Martha,  eager  to  meet  her  be- 
loved  Master,    was  awaiting   Him  outside  the 
town,    and  between  her  and   Jesus  a  dialogue 
took  place  which  has  soothed  and  even  healed 
the  wound  of  death  in  many  hearts  since  then. 
It  is  repeated  in  the  burial  service  of  the  Church. 
It  contains,  too,  one  of  the  Saviour's  plainest 
assertions  of  His  divinity  :   ' '  I  am  the  resurrec- 
tion and  the  life  :  he  that  believeth 
in  Me,  though  he  be  dead  shall  live, 
and   every  one  that  liveth   and   be- 
lieveth in  Me,  shall  not  die  for  ever." 


Bound  feet  and  hands  with  winding- 
bands,  and  his  face  with  a  napkin." 


490  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

He  urged  this  upon  Martha,  as  if  she  stood  sponsor 
for  her  dead  brother,  and  she  instantly  made  Peter's 
profession  of  faith:  "Yea,  Lord,  I  have  believed  that 
Thou  art  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God." 

Martha,  hastening  home  before  the  others,  told 
Mary  what  had  passed,  and  both  the  sisters,  followed 
by  their  household  and  friends,  were  soon  gathered 
about  their  revered  Master — come  too  late,  as  they 
thought,  to  do  more  than  offer  sympathy.  So  indeed  it 
seemed ;  for  Jesus,  when  He  saw  the  tears  and  heard 
the  cries  of  the  women,  wept  bitterly,  groaning  and 
sobbing  with  them ;  yielding  to  His  tender  sympathy 
this  tribute  of  His  human  heart.  Nor  for  that  alone, 
since  He  might  well  weep  in  foreknowledge  that  this 
miracle  of  love  would  hasten  His  own  death. 

And  then  He  bade  them  open  the  grave,  a  cavity  in 
the  rocky  hillside,  closed  by  a  heavy  stone.  Martha 
protested  that  corruption  had  set  in,  thinking  that  He 
might  be  directing  the  removal  of  the  stone  merely  to 
take  a  farewell  look  at  Lazarus.  Jesus  reminded  her 
that  the  reward  of  her  faith  was  to  * '  see  the  glory  of 
God,"  and  then  He  made  a  simple  prayer  of  thanks  to 
His  Father  for  the  mighty  power  He  enjoyed,  and  be- 
cause this  astounding  deed  should  yet  further  win 
men's  faith  in  Him.  All  this  He  said  aloud,  that  it 
might  connect  His  miracle  openly  with  His  Father. 
And  standing  before  the  tomb,  now  opened,  "  He  cried 
with  a  loud  voice,  Lazarus,  come  forth  !  "  A  moment 
of  silence  followed,  all  peering  into  the  dark  cave. 
And  then  Lazarus  appeared,  making  his  way  to  the 
light  as  best  he  might  with  the  bandages  upon  his  arms 
and  legs — as  if  he  had  been  in  a  deep  sleep  and  the  loud 
voice  had  waked  him  from  death.  His  decaying  veins 
had  suddenly  been  filled  with  living  .blood,  his  dead 
heart,  his  dead  brain  were  suddenly  alive  with  his  soul, 


THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS. 


491 


which  had  heard  the  Master  of  life  and  death  and  re- 
turned to  its  deserted  dwelling.  The  awe-stricken 
crowd  was  helpless  and  motionless,  till  Jesus  said, 
11  Loose  him,  and  let  him  go." 

This  miracle,  when  noised  in  Jerusalem,  was  the 
last  incentive  necessary  to  the  conspirators.  They  at 
once  took  measures  to  make  an  end  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth. 


THE  TOMB  OP  LAZARUS  IN  BETHANU. 


493  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER  LXXX. 

"IT   IS   EXPEDIENT  THAT  ONE   MAN   SHOUI/D   DIE   FOR 
THE   PEOPLE." 

John  xi.  47-54. 

LET  us  consider  who  and  what  these  conspirators 
were.  As  to  their  office,  they  were  the  chief  priests 
and  the  members  of  the  Jewish  Great  Council,  or 
Sanhedrin.  Both  the  high-priests,  Annas  and  Cai- 
phas,  were  Sadducees,  a  sect  which  doubted  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul  and  played  fast  and  loose  with 
every  religious  doctrine,  and  whose  adherents  were 
selected  by  the  Roman  governor  for  high  office  in 
the  Jewish  Church,  as  the  men  most  pliant  for  the 
purposes  of  the  conqueror.  Caiphas,  "  high-priest 
of  that  year ' '  destined  to  be  the  last  year  of  the 
ancient  covenant,  had  been  intruded  into  that  holy 
office  by  the  pagan  rulers  of  Israel.  He  held  his 
place  from  year  to  year,  or  rather  at  the  will  of 
the  governor.  The  rightful  high-priest  was  Annas, 
the  father-in-law  of  Caiphas.  These  two,  one  the 
appointee  of  the  conqueror  and  the  other  the  right- 
ful incumbent  but  a  most  unworthy  son  of  Aaron, 
worked  together.  Caiphas  was  known  to  the  Jews 
as  acting  in  accord  with  his  father-in-law,  and  so  was 
tolerated  by  them ;  but  both  were  in  the  pay  of  the 
Romans  and  were  apt  for  any  iniquity,  being  traitors 
in  politics  and  Sadducees  in  doctrine. 

The  members  of  the  Sanhedrin  were  nearly  all 
Pharisees,  genuine  sectarians,  carried  away  by  a  mon- 
strous exaggeration  of  the  outward  forms  of  the  Jewish 
religion,  to  which  they  and  their  predecessors  had 
added  innumerable  observances  of  their  own  invention. 
They  were  religious  spies  upon  the  whole  people,  and 


ONE  MAN  SHOULD  DIE  FOR  THE  PEOPLE."      493 


"THEY  DEVISED  TO  PUT  HIM  TO  DEATH." 

The  chief  priests  therefore  and  the 
Pharisees  gathered  a  council,  and  said  : 
What  do  we,  for  this  man  doth  many 
miracles  ?  If  we  let  him  alone  so,  all  will 
believe  in  him,  and  the  Romans  will  come, 
and  take  away  our  place  and  nation.  But 
one  of  them  named  Caiphas,  being  the 
high-priest  that  year,  said  to  them  :  You 
know  nothing.  Neither  do  you  consider 
that  it  is  expedient  for  you  that  one  man 
should  die  for  the  people,  and  that  the 
whole  nation  perish  not.  And  this  he 
spoke  not  of  himself :  but  being  the  high- 
priest  of  that  year,  he  prophesied  that 
Jesus  should  die  for  the  nation.  And  not 
only  for  the  nation,  but  to  gather  together 
in  one  the  children  of  God,  that  were  dis- 
persed. From  that  day  therefore  they 
devised  to  put  him  to  death. 


with  a  sort  of  voluntary  organiza- 
tion dominated  the  race.  They  ab- 
horred the  Sadducees,  and  rightly, 
on  account  of  their  doctrinal  errors  ; 
but  they  feared  them  also,  for  they 
were  entrenched  in  the  high-priest- 
hood, were  the  tools  of  the  Romans, 
and,  if  not  numerous,  were  yet 
powerful  by  reason  of  their  wealth, 
ability,  and  activity. 

Both  parties  were  against  the 
Messias ;  the  Sadducees  because  they 
knew  that  any  religious  commotion, 
or  indeed  wide-spread  movement  of  any  kind,  would  be 
treated  by  the  Romans  with  instant  and  cruel  severity — 
sweeping  them  out  of  their  fat  places,  and  perhaps 
extinguishing  the  feeble  remnants  of  national  life  upon 
which  they  fed.  The  Pharisees  were  ripe  for  sedition. 
They  were  also  zealous  for  the  law,  and 
were  reformers ;  but  they  would  not  be 
led  by  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  who  was  totally 
opposed  to  them  and  averse  to  all  blood- 
shed. He  held  them  up  in  His  discourses 
as  the  specimen  sinners  of  the  world.  He 
scorned  in  principle  and  practice  their 
most  sacred  observances.  If  He  loved 
the  people — thus  they  reasoned — it  was 
not  chiefly  because  they  were  Jews  but 
because  they  were  children  of  God.  He 
loved  foreigners  and  Samaritans  as  much 
as  He  did  the  seed  of  Abraham.  He  re- 
leased the  people  from  time-honored  re- 
ligious observances.  He  dared  to  face  the 
leaders  of  the  orthodox  Jews,  to  confute 
them  from  Scripture,  to  command  obedi- 


«'  If  we  let  Him  alone  so,  all  will 
believe  in  Him." 


494  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

ence  to  Himself  as  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God,  to 
proclaim  a  kingdom  and  set  it  up  without  armies  or 
bloodshed — and  He  was  a  stupendous  success.  The 
Pharisees  deliberately  preferred  the  Romans  to  Jesus. 

From  motives  mixed  and  various,  therefore,  both 
parties  in  the  official  council  of  Judaism  hated  Jesus 
more  than  they  hated  each  other.  Their  actual  legal 
power  was  small,  for  the  Roman  authority  was  supreme 
in  every  sphere.  But  the  Sanhedrin  could  speak  pri- 
vately to  the  people  and  mislead  them ;  could  poison 
the  mind  of  the  governor  against  Jesus ;  could  work 
on  Pilate's  fears  or  inflame  his  anger.  Hence,  after 
hearing  of  the  great  miracle  at  Bethany,  which  was 
almost  a  suburb  of  the  city,  they  called  a  meeting  : 
41  The  chief  priests,  therefore,  and  the  Pharisees, 
gathered  a  council  and  said :  What  do  we,  for  this 
Man  doth  many  miracles?  If  we  let  Him  alone  so,  all 
men  will  believe  in  Him,  and  the  Romans  will  come 
and  take  away  our  place  and  nation." 

Therein  spoke  the  Sadducees,  time-servers  and 
trimmers.  Little  is  known  of  the  details  of  the  subse- 
quent discussion,  a  few  lines  in  St.  John's  Gospel  be- 
ing all  the  record.  Apparently  a  hopeless  clashing  of 
schemes  and  suggestions  was  the  result.  It  may  have 
been  that  Nicodemus  and  other  friends  of  Jesus  pleaded 
timidly  against  the  murder  which  all  the  rest  were  bent 
upon  committing.  But  at  last  "  Caiphas,  being  the 
high-priest  that  year,  said  to  them :  You  know  noth- 
ing. Neither  do  you  consider  that  it  is  expedient  for 
you  that  one  man  should  die  for  the  people,  and  that 
the  whole  nation  perish  not."  He  fancied  that  he  was 
but  showing  a  way  out  of  their  perplexity  by  suggest- 
ing the  death  of  Jesus  as  a  sacrifice  to  save  worse 
slaughter.  I/ittle  did  he  dream  that  he  spoke  by  in- 
stinct of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  the  false-hearted  Balaam 


THE  UNJUST  JUDGE. .  495. 

had  done  before  him  :  "  And  this  he  spoke  not  of  him- 
self, but  being  the  high-priest  of  that  year,  he  prophe- 
sied that  Jesus  should  die  for  the  nation.  And  not 
only  for  the  nation,  but  to  gather  together  in  one  the 
children  of  God  that  were  dispersed."  It  was  a  divine 
irony  to  cause  the  prophecy  Jesus  Himself  had  made, 
and  which  indeed  had  been  made  of  old  by  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  to  be  promulgated  officially  by  the  head  of 
the  Jewish  religion  amid  the  high  council  of  the  San- 
hedrin. 

And  thus  Jesus  was  condemned  to  death  by  the 
Jews,  without  trial,  or  witnesses,  or  any  formality  of 
law:  "From  that  day,  therefore,  they  devised  to  put 
Him  to  death."  They  accomplished  their  purpose 
after  nearly  six  weeks  of  hard  struggle  against  the 
people's  love,  and  against  the  sense  of  justice  even  of  a 
Roman  governor. 

The  Saviour  knew  their  purpose  full  well :  ' '  Where- 
fore Jesus  walked  no  more  openly  among  the  Jews, 
but  He  went  into  a  country  near  the  desert,  unto  a  city 
that  is  called  Kphrem,  and  there  He  abode  with  His 
disciples." 

CHAPTER   IvXXXI. 

THE  UNJUST  JUDGE  WHO  HEARD  THE  WIDOW'S  PRAYER. 

Luke  xviii.  1-8. 

' '  WHEREFORE  Jesus  walked  no  more  openly  among 
the  Jews."  His  time  was  near  at  hand,  but  He  had  to 
teach  many  things  to  His  Apostles  and  disciples,  and 
therefore  He  so  arranged  His  journeys  and  His  tarry- 
ings  as  to  escape  from  observation.  To  the  north  of 
Jericho  lay  a  desert  place,  on  the  borders  of  which,  as 
we  remember,  the  Saviour  had  spent  His  time  of 
preparation  and  temptation  nearly  three  years  before. 


496 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


To  a  town  adjacent  to  this  region  of  congenial  quiet 
He  now  retired  with  His  followers,  "into  a  city  that 
is  called  Bphrem,  and  there  He  abode  with  His  dis- 
ciples'. '  ' 

This  placed  Him  just  within  the  limits  of  Samaria  ; 
outside,  therefore,  of  the  circle  of 
His  enemies'  fiercest  hatred,  which 
centred  in  Judea.  The  little  city 
gave  Him  and  His  a  refuge  in 
which  He  could  safely  teach  ;  the 
desert  at  its  gates  was  an  inviting 
solitude  for  His  long  communings 
with  His  Father,  preparatory  to  His 
supreme  hour.  Prayer  was  His 
habitual  consolation,  and  His  pur- 
pose was  to  make  it  the  common- 


"SHE  IS    TROUBLESOME   TO   ME." 

And  he  spoke  also  a  parable  to  them, 
that  we  ought  always  to  pray,  and  not  to 
faint.  Saying  :  There  was  a  judge  in  a 
certain  city,  who  feared  not  God,  nor 
regarded  man.  And  there  was  a  cer- 
tain widow  in  that  city,  and  she  came 
to  him,  saying  :  Avenge  me  of  my  ad- 
versary. And  he  would  not  for  a  long 
time.  But  afterward  he  said  within  him- 
self :  Although  I  fear  not  God,  nor  regard 
man,  yet  because  this  widow  is  trouble- 
some to  me,  I  will  avenge  her,  lest  con- 
tinually coming  she  weary  me.  And  the 
Lord  said  :  Hear  what  the  unjust  judge 
saith.  And  will  not  God  revenge  his  elect 
who  cry  to  him  day  and  night  :  and  will 


he  have  patience  in  their  regard  ?  I  say  to 
you  that  he  will  quickly  revenge  them. 
But  yet  the  son  of  man  when  he  cometh, 
shall  he  find,  think  you,  faith  on  earth? 


place  of  His  religion.  He  gave  a 
singularly  powerful  illustration  of 
God's  readiness  to  answer  prayer. 
It  is  doubtless  the  fruit  of  one  of  His  own  excursions 
into  the  solitary  places  of  the  neighborhood  to  pray 
for  His  Apostles  and  for  all  mankind  against  the 
enemies  of  their  souls. 

The  last  sentence  touches  the  weak  spot  in  men's 
praying  —  their  lack  of  confidence  in  God.  It  was  es- 
pecially applicable  to  the  Apostles,  who  in  the  ap- 
proaching crisis  would  be  found  wanting  for  lack  of 
trustful  faith  in  their  Master. 


SENDING  OF  THE  SEVENTY-TWO  DISCIPLES.    497 
CHAPTER   LXXXII. 

THE   SENDING   OF   THE   SEVENTY-TWO   DISCIPLES. 
Matt.  xi.  25-27 ;  Luke  x.  1-24.. 

As  He  approached  the  end,  our  Lord  felt  more 
and  more  painfully  the  immensity  of  the  task  which 
the  Father  had  laid  upon  Him.  He  and  His  twelve 
Apostles  seemed  to  Him  like  a  farmer  and  his 
sons  endeavoring  to  save  a  harvest  so  generous  that 
with  their  utmost  labor  the  greater  part  would  be 
lost  before  they  could  reap  and  gather  it  in.  And 
oh  what  a  calamity  is  the  loss  of  an  immortal  soul ! 
What  a  yearning  of  heart  was  His  for  perishing  souls  ! 
This  yearning  He  communicates  to  us  by  a  powerful 
movement  of  His  grace  inspiring  that  peculiar  grace 
called  the  love  of  souls,  giving  what  is  known  as 
the  Apostolic  vocation.  This  is  nothing  less  than 
the  Holy  Spirit,  in  Its  procession  from  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  taking  up  in  Its  course  the  created 
spirit  and  breathing  into  it  the  divine  love  of  souls. 

While  training  His  Apostles,  who  were  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  all  others,  both  by  their  office  and 
their  supernatural  gifts,  Jesus  associated  to  them 
seventy-two  disciples.  These  were  picked  men,  faithful 
followers  of  the  Lord,  but  not  Apostles.  They  were 
the  first  of  that  countless  multitude  of  Christ's  lovers, 
called  by  their  office  as  parent  or  teacher,  or  by 
their  learning,  or  their  wealth  and  social  station,  to 
share  the  labors  and  merits  of  the  episcopate  and 
priesthood,  though  not  gifted  with  the  Apostolic 
sacrament  of  Holy  Orders.  Or  it  may  be  said  that 
they  were  in  a  special  manner  the  pioneer  members 
of  the  Christian  priesthood ;  these  have  indeed  the 
Apostolic  sacrament,  but  not  in  its  fulness ;  and  they 


498  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

partake  of  that  fulness  in  toil  and  in  merit  by  being 
associated  to  the  bishops,  the  lineal  successors  of 
the  Apostles. 

These  seventy-two  Jesus  sent  in  pairs  before  Him 
into  the  villages  and  towns  to  prepare  the  people  for 
His  coming,  addressing  to  them  an  exhortation  quite 
similar  to  that  given  the  Apostles  a  year  before  in 
Galilee.  He  gave  them  the  power  of  miracles,  and 
they  were  directed  to  announce  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
the  reign  of  the  Messias.  He  gazed  fondly  upon 
the  little  band  as  they  stood  ready  to  depart,  and 
with  a  deep  sigh  He  said:  "The  harvest  indeed  is 
great,  but  the  laborers  are  few."  Not  only  the 
i  numerous  people  of  Israel  did  His 


1    soul  count  against  these  few  tnessen- 


Carry  neither  purse,  nor  scrip,  nor. 
shoes;  and  salute  no  man  by  the  way. 
Into  whatsoever  house  you  enter,  first  say  : 
Peace  be  to  this  house :  And  if  the  son 
of  peace  be  there,  your  peace  shall  rest 
upon  him  :  but  if  not,  it  shall  return  to 
you.  And  in  the  same  house  remain,  eat- 
ing and  drinking  such  things  as  they  have. 
For  the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire.  Re- 
move not  from  house  to  house.  And  into 
what  city  soever  you  enter,  and  they  re- 
ceive you,  eat  such  things  as  are  set  before 
you :  And  heal  the  sick  that  are  therein, 
and  say  to  them  :  The  kingdom  of  God  is 
come  nigh  unto  you. 

therefore   the   I/ord  of   the  harvest, 


gers  of  the  Glad  Tidings,  but  His 
spirit  ranged  over  the  whole  world 
and  its  myriads  of  souls,  each  one  in 
need  of  His  doctrine  of  eternal  life. 
Then  follows  an  injunction  which 
has  been  most  gladly  obeyed  by  the 
faithful  children  of  God  ever  since, 
prayer  for  vocations:  "Pray  ye 


that   He  send  laborers   into  His  harvest." 

The  heroic  side  of  the  Apostolate  and  its  peace- 
ful character  were  joined  in  His  words,  "Go!  Be- 
hold I  send  you  as  lambs  among  wolves."  And  then 
the  spirit  of  detachment  from  the  comforts  of  this 
world,  and  even  from  its  necessaries,  was  inculcated. 
Nothing  conduces  to  persuasion  like  unselfish 
devotion  to  one's  cause.  Nothing,  on  the  other 
hand,  so  much  hinders  persuasion  as  the  suspicion 
of  interested  motives.  Our  Saviour  is  always  return- 
ing to  this  detachment  from  money,  and  especially 


SENDING  OF  THE  SEVENTY-TWO  DISCIPLES.     499 

on  the  part  of  those  who  stand  for  Him  among  the 
people.  Let  such  a  one  take  God's  calling  as  His 
only  wealth,  and  His  eloquence  is  resistless  to  all 
upright  hearts.  Who  can  resist  a  pleader  for  Christ, 
whose  word  of  truth  is  presented  by  the  beautiful 
argument  of  contempt  for  money  ?  Those  who  do 
resist  are  self-condemned  and  may  expect  exemplary 
punishment.  Our  Saviour  shows  this,  as  He  teaches  : 
"  But  into  whatsoever  city  you  enter,  and  they 
receive  you  not,  going  forth  into  the  streets  thereof, 
say  :  Even  the  very  dust  of  your  city  that  cleaveth  to 
us  we  wipe  off  against  you.  Yet  know  this,  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand.  I  say  to  you,  it  shall 
be  more  tolerable  at  that  day  for  Sodom,  than  for 
that  city.  And  when  they  shall  persecute  you  in 
one  city,  flee  into  another.  Amen  I  say  to  you,  you 
shall  not  finish  the  cities  of  Israel,  till  the  Son  of 
Man  come." 

Afterwards,  when  the  seventy-two  disciples  began 
to  return  and  .make  their  reports  they  were  full  of 
joy,  especially  because  the  evil  spirits  could  not 
resist  them.  Our  Saviour  was  glad  ;  but  He  warned 
them  against  the  vanity  which  lurks  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  supernatural  gifts,  and  too  often  gives 
entrance  to  the  worst  of  demons,  spiritual  pride: 
"And  the  seventy- two  returned  with  joy,  saying: 
Lord,  the  devils  also  are  subject  to  us  in  Thy  name. 
And  He  said  to  them  :  I  saw  Satan  like  lightning 
falling  from  heaven.  Behold,  I  have  given  you  power 
to  tread  upon  serpents  and  scorpions,  and  upon  all 
the  power  of  the  enemy,  and  nothing  shall  hurt  you, 
But  yet  rejoice  not  in  this,  that  spirits  are  subject 
unto  you :  but  rejoice  in  this,  that  your  names  are 
written  in  heaven." 

The    simplicity    of    His    disciples,    their    childlike 


5oo  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

candor,  their  btraightforward  and  literal  acceptance 
of  His  commands,  was  all  so  pleasing  to  Jesus  that 
He  overflowed  with  the  joy  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
a  prayer  of  thanksgiving.  How  highly  honored  are 
those  for  whom  Jesus  thanks  His  Father!  The 
reader  will  notice  the  teaching  of  the  Three  Persons 
in  One  God  enfolded  in  these  majestic  sentences : 

"  In  that  same  hour  He  rejoiced  in  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  said  :  I  confess  to  Thee,  O  Father,  Lord 
of  heaven  and  earth,  because  Thou  hast  hidden  these 
things  from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed 
them  to  little  ones.  Yea,  Father,  for  so  it  hath 
seemed  good  in  Thy  sight.  All  things  are  delivered 
to  Me  by  My  Father,  and  no  one  knoweth  who  the 
Son  is  but  the  Father  ;  and  who  the  Father  is  but 
the  Son,  and  to  whom  the  Son  will  reveal  Him.  And 
turning  to  His  disciples,  He  said  :  Blessed  are  the 
eyes  that  see  the  things  which  you  see.  For  I  say 
to  you  that  many  prophets  and  kings  have  desired  to 
seethe  things  that  you  see,  and  have  not  seen  them; 
and  to  hear  the  things  that  you  hear,  and  have  not 
heard  them." 

In  the  fulness  of  His  heart  Jesus  longed  that  all 
mankind  might  receive  the  Glad  Tidings.  His 
promise  is  especially  addressed  to  those  who  bend 
beneath  the  yoke  of  sin:  "Come  to  Me  all  you  that 
labor  and  are  burdened,  and  I  will  refresh  you.  Take 
up  My  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  Me,  because  I  am 
meek  and  humble  of  heart,  and  you  shall  find  rest  to 
your  souls ;  for  My  yoke  is  sweet  and  My  burden 
is  light."  This  is  one  of  our  Saviour's  great  say- 
ings, and  it  is  like  oil  poured  out  for  the  joy  of  mul- 
titudes of  despairing  souls.  The  servitude  of  Chris- 
tian virtue  is  a  delicious  freedom,  a  sweet  yoke;  the 
liberty  of  the  flesh  is  slavery,  a  galling  yoke. 


WHERE  ARE  1HE  NINE? 


501 


CHAPTER  lyXXXIII. 

"WHERE    ARE    THE    NINE?" 

Luke  xvii.  II—TQ. 

ROM  what  Jesus  had  said  to  the  seventy-two 
disciples  as  to  the  places  they  should  visit, 
we  learn  that  His  movements,  following  up 
their  advance,  took  in  a  large  circuit.  Be- 
ing at  the  start  within  the  borders  of  Sa- 
maria at  Ephreui,  He,  if  we  understand  St. 
Luke  rightly,  made  His  final  journey  to 
Jerusalem  by  a  roundabout  way.  He  passed  through 
the  midst  of  Samaria,  touching  even  the  borders  of 
Galilee,  and  crossed  the  Jordan  into  the  Perea.  The 
placing  of  Samaria  before  Galilee  in  this  statement  of 
the  Evangelist  gives  a  greater  probability  to  this  view 
of  His  course.  He  was  determined  to  give  the  poor 
schismatics  and  semi-pagans  of  Samaria  a  full  share  of 
attention.  Of  the  many  events  which  illustrated  His 
power  and  His  goodness  in  this  journey,  we  have  one 
which  aids  us  greatly  to  practise  the  beautiful  virtue 
of  gratitude. 

There  is  a  wonderful  lesson  in  this 
incident.  "  Where  are  the  nine  ?  "  is 
God's  question  continually  repeated. 
The  equanimity  of  men  in  receiving 
the  astounding  gifts  of  God,  not  a  rip- 
ple of  excitement  for  pardon  of  beast- 
ly vice — pardon  a  thousand  times  re- 
newed,— scarcely  a  moment  spent  in 
thanks  for  the  boon  of  life  eternal, 
and  this  the  usual  rule  and  thanks 
the  rare  exception,  make  the  duty  of 
thanksgiving  a  theme  very  necessary 
for  instruction  and  meditation. 


THE   RARE   VIRTUE  OF  GRATITUDE. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  as  he  was  going  to 
Jerusalem,  he  passed  through  the  midst  of 
Samaria  and  Galilee.  And  as  he  entered 
into  a  certain  town,  there  met  him  ten 
men  that  were  lepers,  who  stood  afar  off, 
and  lifted  up  their  voice,  saying :  Jesus, 
Master,  have  mercy  on  us.  Whom  when 
he  saw,  he  said  :  Go,  shew  yourselves  to 
the  priests.  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  they 
went,  they  were  made  clean.  And  one  of 
them  when  he  saw  that  he  was  made  clean, 
went  back,  with  a  loud  voice  glorifying 
God.  And  he  fell  on  his  face  before  his 
feet,  giving  thanks  :  and  this  was  a  Sama- 
ritan. And  Jesus  answering,  said:  Were 
not  ten  made  clean  ?  and  where  are  the 
nine  ?  There  is  no  one  found  to  return 
and  give  glory  to  God,  but  this  stranger. 
And  he  said  to  him  :  Arise,  go  thy  way ; 
for  thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole. 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Leprosy,  as  we   have  seen  elsewhere  in  our  jour- 
neyings  with  Jesus,  was  made  a  sort  of  religious  un- 
cleanness,  besides  its  misfortune  as  a  loathsome  con- 
tagion.    Now,  this    Samaritan,    more   unclean    than  a 
leper  in  the  eyes  of  the  Jews,  both  priests  and  people, 
not   only    gave  thanks    for  his    cure    but    obeyed    his 
benefactor  and  went  to  the  priests  for  inspection.     He 
threw    off   his    schism    and    his    heresy    when    Jesus 
cleansed   him   of   his   leprosy.     He    alone   of  the    ten 
returned    to   Jesus,    openly    and    with    a    loud    voice 
declaring  his  faith  and  giving  thanks,  caring  nothing 
Went  back,  with    for  what...  his  Samaritan    family  and   friends  might    do 
a  loud  voice  glori-   or   think.     His    reward  was   a    deep  rooting  of  faith  : 

f,,4«o-    n^rl   »» 

"  Arise,  go  thy  way  ;  thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole. 

That  group  of  ten  lepers  stands  for  all  humanity. 
The  many  receive  benefits,  the  few  return  thanks. 
These  obtain  more  than  any  others  the  priceless  gift 
of  increased  faith. 


fying 


CHAPTER  LXXXIV. 

LABORERS   HIRED    AT  THE    ELEVENTH   HOUR. 
rr-TA'SK;  '*    ay      "• 

©;  311103  %£w  ft,jEfea  _.??,    .  Malt.  xix.  jo,  and  xx.  1-16. 
lb  JeMm  dib  ifsuoidi    *M*«J«J  Hi  u 

•?.»t!  a.R  JESUS   taught    at   this    time   how    God    the    Father 

jk>*'<;  calls  men  and  nations  to  the  Kingdom  of  His  Son, 
arid  also  His  absolute  independence  in  thus  granting 
the  gift  of  faith  and  love.  Trusting,  as  many  did,  in 
this  or  that  human  merit  in  God's  sight,  and  claiming 
for  that  reason  to  be  first  in  the  divine  choice,  Jesus 
says  that  such  self-trustful  ones  shall  be  last.  To 
the  Jews,  especially,  He  laid  down  the  doctrine  that 
the  priority  of  their  call,  in  the  person  of  Abraham, 
did  not  give  their  race  a  superior  claim  above  the 
"Gentiles  :  to  cherish  such  a  delusion  would  result  in 


NOT  MAN'S  MERIT  BUT  GOD'S  CHOICE. 


503 


bitter    disappointment.     He   said  :   "  And   many    that 
are  first  shall  be  last,  and  the  last  shall  be  first." 

According  to  His  usual  method,  He  illustrated  this 
truth  of  God's  total  freedom  from  obligation  to  man 
in  conferring  the  grace  of  the  true  religion,  by  a 
familiar  example.  At  that  season 
of  spring-time,  as  Jesus  and  His 
party  passed  through  the  towns  and 
villages  they  saw  groups  of  men 
waiting  to  be  hired.  These,  with 
their  tools  in  their  hands,  were 
standing  about  the  market-places, 
and  now  and  again  a  proprietor 
would  come,  pick  out  his  men  and 
start  back  to  his  farm  or  vineyard. 
Many  of  these  farm-hands  were  scat- 
tered among  our  Saviour's  hearers, 
as  He  paused  to  teach  at  their  place 
of  waiting.  The  simplicity  of  the 
example  aided  men  to  understand 
the  wonderful  doctrine  of  "elec- 
tion," or  vocation  to  divine  grace. 

No  one  can  interpret  this  parable 
to  mean  that  the  rewards  of  heaven 
shall  be  equal  in  all  cases.  No,  for 
in  many  places  the  Master  speaks 
of  particular  merit  for  particular  vir- 
tue, in  accordance  with  our  inborn 
sense  of  the  vast  difference  between 
the  innocent  babe  and  the  heroic 
martyr.  What  our  Saviour  means 
is  God's  freedom  in  the  call  to  grace. 
He  teaches  that  what  goes  first  in  saving  souls  is 
not  man's  merit  but  God's  choice.  God  calls  every 
one  with  an  equal  purpose  to  save,  and  to'^each  one 


"GCTYOU   INTO  MY   VINEYARD." 

The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  to  an 
householder,  who  went  out  early  in  the 
morning  to  hire  laborers  into  his  vineyard. 
And  having  agreed  with  the  laborers  for 
a  penny  a  day,  he  sent  them  into  his  vine- 
yard. And  going  out  about  the  third 
hour,  he  saw  others  standing  in  the  market- 
place idle.  And  he  said  to  them  :  Go  you 
also  into  my  vineyard,  and  I  will  give  you 
what  shall  be  just.  And  they  went  their 
way.  And  again  he  went  out  about  the 
sixth  and  the  ninth  hour  :  and  did  in  like 
manner.  But  about  the  eleventh  hour  he 
went  out  and  found  others  standing,  and 
he  saith  to  them  :  Why  stand  you  here  all 
the  day  idle  ?  They  say  to  him  :  Because 
no  man  hath  hired  us.  He  saith  to  them  : 
Go  ye  also  into  my  vineyard.  And  when 
evening  was  come,  the  lord  of  the  vine- 
yard saith  tohissteward  :  Call  the  laborers 
and  pay  them  their  hire,  beginning  from 
the  last  even  to  the  first.  When  therefore 
they  were  come  that  came  about  the 
eleventh  hour,  they  received  every  man 
a  penny.  But  when  the  first  also  came, 
they  thought  that  they  should  receive 
more  :  and  they  also  received  every  man 
a  penny.  And  receiving  it  they  murmured 
against  the  master  of  the  house.  Saying  : 
These  last  have  worked  but  one  hour,  and 
thou  hast  made  them  equal  to  us,  that 
have  borne  the  burden  of  the  day  and  the 
heats.  But  he  answering  said  to  one  of 
them  :  Friend,  I  do  thee  no  wrong  :  didst 
thou  not  agree  with  me  for  a  penny  ? 
Take  what  is  thine,  and  go  thy  way.  I 
will  also  give  to  this  last  even  as  to  thee. 
Or,  is  it  not  lawful  for  me  to  do  what  I 
will  ?  is  thy  eye  evil,  because  I  am  good  ? 
So  shall  the  last  be  first,  and  the  first  last. 
For  many  are  called,  but  few  chosen. 


504  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

He  gives  grace  for  salvation.  But  once  that  grace  is 
given,  its  recipients  begin  to  merit  by  its  means, 
and  their  merit  differs  widely.  And  how  does  it 
differ  ?  Those  who  fancied  that  the  Master  called 
them  because  their  race  was  His  favored  one,  or 
because  their  natural  virtue  attracted  Him,  will  find 
that  this  first  place  exists  only  in  their  self-righteous 
imagination,  and  they  shall  be  least  in  the  kingdom 
of  God.  Those  who  lay  aside  as  a  temptation  all 
thought  of  personal  merit,  will  find  a  power  of  God 
within  them  placing  them  under  a  spell  of  love  and. 
trustfulness  and  light  peculiar  to  the  humble.  Work- 
ing by  the  aid  ol  grace,  man  works  with  God's 
righteousness,  and  receives  his  reward  on  the  score 
of  justice.  But  work  as  he  will  before  grace  has 
sanctified  him,  God's  justice  owes  him  nothing  ;  such 
a  man  is  wholly  in  the  order  of  mercy.  Whatever 
soreness  of  heart  he  may  feel  at  the  advancement 
of  others  is  caused  by  delusion:  "Is  it  not  lawful 
for  Me  to  do  what  I  will  ?  Is  thy  eye  evil  because  I 
am  good  ?  " 

This  is  the  call  of  all  peoples  to  the  faith  of 
Jesus  Christ,  without  distinction  of  previous  racial 
or  historical  or  personal  merit.  The  market-place  is 
the  world,  and  the  Master  of  the  vineyard  going  out 
to  select  His  servants  is  Jesus  Christ.  His  Divine 
Spirit  calls  the  Jewish  race  first,  then  the  Samaritan, 
then  the  nations  everywhete.  In  the  end  what  was 
first  in  time  is  outstripped  and  left  last  in  honor. 

It  is  not  otherwise  with  individuals.  Nicodemus, 
doctor  of  the  law  and  member  of  the  Sanhedrin, 
creeps  in  the  shadow  of  the  poor  fisherman.  Great 
philosophers  are  rejected  -from  the  high  places  and 
humble  peasants  are  preferred.  Even  those  whose 
lives  have  always  been  innocent  are  often  outstripped 


NOT  MAN'S  MERIT  BUT  GOD'S  CHOICE.  505 

by  penitent  sinners,  examples  of  the  Apostle's  dogma, 
"It  is  not  of  him  that  willeth  nor  of  him  that 
runneth,  but  of  God  who  sheweth  mercy." 
*  All  of  which  was  gall  and  wormwood  to  the  Jews, 
whose  blood  was  their  faith,  whose  history  was  their 
boast  before  heaven.  It  is  also  a  hard  doctrine  for 
certain  races  and  families  even  in  Christian  times, 
who  would  set  the  rest  of  the  world  off  from  them- 
selves as  being  rated  as  of  lower  grade  by -God  the 
Holy  Ghost  "  hiring  laborers  into  His  vineyard." 
These  assume  that  by  their  natural  gifts  they  are 
God's  best  choice.  The  truth  is  otherwise,  for  God 
is  able  to  raise  up  children  to  Himself  out  of  stocks 
and  stones,  and  chooses  whom  He  will. 

When   this   truth  is   made   the   foundation   of  per- 
sonal  virtue,  it  enables  the   Christian  to   acquire  real 
merit  with   wonderful  facility,  for   it  is   the  virtue  of 
humility  that  is  rewarded  with  that  love  which  makes 
us  one  with  Christ.     It  absorbs  us  in  Christ.     In  our 
miseries  it  nails  us  with  Christ  to  the  cross.     In  our 
joys  we  rise  again  with    Christ  unto  newness  of  life. 
Christ   lives  in   us   and   we    live   in   Christ. 
And   this    and    this   alone   is   the    Christian 
doctrine  of  merit. 

It  may  be  asked :  Do  the  words,  ' 4  But 
few  are  chosen,"  mean  that  the  number  who 
shall  attain  to  Heaven  is  small  ?  We  answer 
that  many  have  believed  so.  But  others  are 
of  opinion  that  our  Saviour  taught  by  these 
words  that  few  attain  to  the  greatness  of 
merit  and  the  degree  of  reward  which  is  set 
apart  for  the  specially  humble.  a  penny, 


506  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER   LXXXV. 

RICHES   AND    POVERTY,    AND    CHRISTIAN    PERFECTION. 
Matt.  xix.  16-26  ;  Mark  x.  17-28 ;  Luke  xviii.  18-28.   ' 

"  AND  when  He  was  gone  forth  into  the  way, 
a  certain  man  running  up  and  kneeling  before  Him, 
asked  Him :  Good  Master,  what  shall  I  do  that  I 
may  receive  life  everlasting?  And  Jesus  said  to  him: 
Why  callest  thou  Me  good  ?  None  is  good  but  one, 
God."  Why  did  the  Saviour  rebuke  this  man?  It 
is  uncertain  whether  it  was  to  elicit  an  act  of  faith 
in  His  divinity,  or  to  chide  him  for  using  the  term 
"  Good  Master,"  as  an  idle  and  unmeaning  formality. 
This  impulsiye  person  was  not  of  a  deeply  religious 
nature,  and  therefore  needed  to  be  turned  inward 
to  a  careful  scrutiny  of  his  motives.  "  But  if  thou 
wilt  enter  into  life  keep  the  commandments.  But  he 
said  to  Him,  Which?"  Perhaps  he  dreamed  of  some 
ready-made  system  of  law  which  would  save  him 
as  by  a  physician's  recipe.  Jesus  held  him  down 
to  commonplace  good  behavior,  not  even  naming 
the  sublimer  duties  of  the  soul  to  God  in  prayer 
and  worship  and  love:  "Thou  shalt  do  no  murder. 
Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery.  Thou  shalt  not 
steal.  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness.  Honor 
thy  father  and  thy  mother  ;  and  thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself." 

A  momentary  triumph  for  the  enthusiastic  man 
was  gained  by  the  application  of  this  rule.  Though 
a  mediocre  character,  he  was  true  to  his  neighbor 
on  every  point.  He  exclaimed:  "All  these  have  I 
kept  from  my  youth;  what  is  yet  wanting  in  me?" 
The  interrogatory  form  but  emphasized  his  boast: 
nothing  is  wanting  to  me.  Now,  supposing  him  to 


RICHES  AND  POVERTY. 


be  as  true  to  God  as  he  was  true  to  man — and  he 
deserved  this  latter  praise — what  really  was  wanting? 
The  heroic  spirit.  He  must  not.  only  love  God  and 
his  neighbor,  but  he  must  be  ready  to  give  up  all 
things  for  their  sake.  Many  an  en- 
thusiast would  pose  as  a  hero ;  yet 
he  performs  only  ordinarily  good 
actions,  though  he  does  so  with  os- 
tentation. Let  him  do  no  more  than 
is  necessary  to  salvation  but  with  a 
spirit  standing  in  readiness  for  any 
extraordinary  call  of  God,  and  he  is 
a  perfect  man.  The  test  of  perfec- 
tion is  not  in  what  one  does,  much 
or  little,  but  in  the  mighty  purpose 
to  do  everything,  as  soon  as  God's 
Spirit  points  the  way.  This  test  our 
young  man  failed  to  stand.  Good 
as  he  was  and  worthy  of  our  Sav- 
iour's love,  he  had  riches  and  he 
was  attached  to  them  :  "  And  Jesus 
looking  on  him  loved  him  and  said 
to  him  :  One  thing  is  wanting  unto 
thee  ;  if  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go, 
sell  all  whatever  thou  hast,  and  give 
to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have 
treasure  in  heaven,  and  come,  follow 
Me.  And  when  the  young  man  had 
heard  this  word,  he  went  away  sad, 
for  he  had  great  possessions." 

He  was  gone,  his  lesson  unlearn- 
ed !  "And  Jesus  seeing  him  become  sad,  looking  round 
about,  saith  to  His  disciples  :  How  hardly  shall  they 
that  have  riches  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  God  !  "  The 
deceitfulness  of  riches  must  be  learned  by  the  disciples 


THE   SCIENCE  OF   RELIGIOUS  ECONOMY. 

And  when  he  was  gone  forth  into  the 
way,  a  certain  man  running  up  and  kneel- 
ing before  him,  asked  him  :  Good  Master, 
what  shall  I  do  that  1  may  receive  life  ever- 
lasting ?  And  Jesus  said  to  him  :  Why 
callest  thou  me  good?  None  is  good  but 
one,  God.  But  if  thou  wilt  enter  into  life 
keep  the  Commandments.  But  he  said  to 
him:  Which?  And  Jesus  said:  Thou 
shalt  do  no  murder.  Thou  shalt  not  com- 
mit adultery.  Thou  shalt  not  steal.  Thou 
shalt  not  bear  false  witness.  Honor  thy 
father  and  thy  mother ;  and  thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  The  young 
man  saith  to  him :  All  these  have  I  kept 
from  my  youth  ;  what  is  yet  wanting  to 
me  ?  And  Jesus  looking  on  him  loved 
him  and  said  to  him  :  One  thing  is  want- 
ing unto  thee  ;  if  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go, 
sell  all  whatever  thou  hast,  and  give  to 
the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasure  in 
heaven,  and  come,  follow  me.  And  when 
the  young  man  had  heard  this  word,  he 
went  away  sad,  for  he  had  great  pos 
sessions.  And  Jesus  seeing  him  become 
sad,  looking  round  about,  saith  to  his 
disciples:  How  hardly  shall  they  that  have 
riches  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  God  ! 
And  the  disciples  were  astonished  at  his 
words.  But  Jesus  again  answering,  saith 
to  them  :  Children,  how  hard  it  is  for  them 
that  trust  in  riches  to  enter  into  the  King- 
dom of  God  !  It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to 
pass  through  the  eye  of  a  needle,  than  for 
a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  Who  wondered  the  more,  saying 
among  themselves :  Who  then  can  be 
saved  ?  And  Jesus  looking  on  them, 
saith  :  With  men  it  is  impossible,  but  not 
with  God  ;  for  all  things  are  possible  with 
God. 


5o8  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

— Jesus  was  bound  to  make  sure  of  that.  It  is  a 
lesson  that  is  hard  to  flesh  and  blood.  Even  religion 
is  tempted  to  gather  wealth  and  lay  store  by  it  as 
a  help  towards  God.  Ever  since  Christendom  was 
divided  in  the  sixteenth  century,  those  that  then 
went  wrong  have  boasted  of  worldly  prosperity  as  a 
mark  of  divine  favor.  Under  the  old  law  this  was 
a  true  sign,  for  then  the  gifts  of  time  were  made 
marks  of  eternal  favor,  because  of  the  weakness  of 
human  nature  in  those  days.  But  Jesus  changed  all 
that,  and  for  Christian  men  and  women  taken  sepa- 
rately, as  well  as  for  Christian  communities,  the  true 
doctrine  is  placed  and  stands  for  ever  :  ' '  How  hardly 
shall  they  that  have  riches  enter  into  the  Kingdom 
of  God!  " 

Nor  was  it  easy  for  even  the  disciples  to  take  in 
the  full  meaning  of  this  fundamental  law  of  Religious 
Economy:  "And  the  disciples  were  astonished  at 
His  words."  They  were  yet  school  children  in  the 
divine  teaching.  Our  Saviour  felt  this,  and  so 
"again  answering,  He  saith  to  them:  Children,  how 
hard  it  is  for  them  that  trust  in  riches  to  enter  into 
the  Kingdom  of  God."  This  shows  that  if  one  pos- 
sesses riches  and  trusts  not  in  them,  but  in  God 
who  is  their  first  and  last  owner,  he  does  not  fall 
under  the  curse.  But  if  he  is  the  ordinary  rich  man, 
the  one  whose  character  is  formed  by  striving  after 
wealth  and  by  consciousness  of  its  possession,  and  who 
trusts  to  wealth  for  his  joy,  then  he  may  be  saved 
only  by  an  impossibility.  We  appeal  to  God  for  a 
miracle  to  save  such  a  one.  "  It  is  easier,"  exclaimed 
the  Master,  "for  a  camel  to  pass  th  ough  the  eye  of 
a  needle,  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the  King- 
dom of  God.  [The  disciples]  wondered  the  more, 
saying  among  themselves  :  Who  then  can  be  saved  ? 


THIS  LIFE  AND  LIFE  EVERLASTING. 


509 


And    Jesus    looking   on    them,    saith :    With    men   it 
is    impossible,    but    not    with    God  ;    for    all    things 
are    possible   with    God."     Our   Lord    does    not,    of 
course,    mean   that   one   may   trust   in    riches   to    the 
end   and   still    be    saved.     But   that   however   certain 
the   injury  done   to   the  soul   by  riches,    corrupting  it 
by  placing  its  end  and  object  in  this  life,  substituting 
the  love  of  money  and  of  power  and  of  luxury  and  of 
sensuality  in  place  of  the  love 
of  God — in  spite  of  this   usual 
effect   of  riches  upon  the  soul, 
God  can  make  exceptions.     He 
can   give  extraordinary  graces, 
He  can  send  sickness  and  death 
and  disappointment,  terrible  and 
often  successful   messengers  of 
love.    He  can  make  riches  them- 
selves a  means  of  grace.      But 
this   is  the  exception  ;    for   the 
rule   is  that  riches   corrupt  the 

_  .  .  And  Jesus  looking  on  him  loved  him." 

heart  of   man  and   obscure  Ins 

mind,  hinder  his  salvation  and  often  make  it  impossible. 


CHAPTER  LXXXVI. 

THE    HUNDRED-FOLD    IN    THIS    LIFE    AND    LIFE    EVER- 
LASTING  HEREAFTER. 

Matt.  xix.  27-29  ;  Mark  x.  29-30  ;  Lukexviii.  29-30. 

THE  failure  of  one  man  is  the  disheartenment  of 
another.  But  if  this  is  the  rule,  it  is  not  without 
exceptions.  The  more  generous  nature  is  but  roused 
to  nobler  daring  by  the  spectacle  of  another's 
cowardice.  It  was  so  in  the  case  of  the  Apostles  of 
Christ,  who  gazed  upon  the  departing  figure  of  the 


5io 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


rich  young  man  with  great  contempt  for  his  pusillan- 
imity. As  usual,  it  was  Peter  who  spoke  their  common 
feeling:  "Then  Peter  answering,  said  to  Him:  Be- 
hold, we  have  left  all  things  and  have  followed  Thee; 
what  therefore  shall  we  have  ? ' '  Doubtless  there 
was  some  self-conceit  in  this  question,  but  Jesus 
knew  the  good  hearts  of  His  chosen  band,  and 
immediately  told  them  their  great 
reward  :  "  Amen  I  say  to  you,  that 
you  who  have  followed  Me,  in  the 
regeneration,  when  the  Son  of  Man 
shall  sit  on  the  seat  of  His  majesty, 
you  also  shall  sit  on  twelve  seats, 
judging  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel." 
These  Galileans  had  not  left  much, 
as  rich  men  would  reckon  it,  but  it 
was  their  all.  A  few  nets,  a  hum- 
ble cottage,  a  small  patch  of  ground, 
the  company  of  unlettered  kindred 
— what  was  this  to  give  up  for 
the  great  honor  of  the  Apostleship  ?  Everything  to 
those  who  had  nothing  more.  Furthermore,  it  is 
the  motive  that  gauges  the  merit  of  a  deed.  What 
the  Apostles  had  given  up  was  equal  to  a  monarch's 
palace  and  court  in  the  eyes  of  Jesus,  for  they  had 
done  it  out  of  love  for  Him.  Their  tears  at  parting 
with  home  and  kindred  were  precious  to  Him,  because 
they  had  chosen  Him  above  father  and  mother  and 
child. 

Their  reward  was  that  He  should  be  worth  more 
to  them  than  any  fortune,  and  dearer  than  any 
natural  kindred.  That  is  what  is  meant  by  His  say- 
ing, as  He  continued  the  balance  sheet,  that  the  very 
persecutions  they  should  suffer  would  be  a  higher 
joy  to  them  than  the  home  comforts  and  the  family 


"  WHAT,  THEREFORE,  SHALL  WE  HAVE  ?" 

Then  Peter  answering,  said  to  him  :  Be- 
hold, we  have  left  all  things  and  have  fol- 
lowed thee;  what  therefore  shall  we 
have  ?  And  Jesus  said  to  them  :  Amen  I 
say  to  you,  that  you  who  have  followed 
me,  in  the  regeneration,  when  the  Son  of 
Man  shall  sit  on  the  seat  of  his  majesty, 
you  also  shall  sit  on  twelve  seats,  judging 
the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel.  Amen  1  say 
to  you,  there  is  no  man  who  hath  left 
house,  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or  father,  or 
mother,  or  children,  or  lands,  for  my  sake, 
and  for  the  Gospel,  who  shall  not  receive 
an  hundred  times  as  much  now  in  this  time 

houses  and  brethren  and  sisters  and 
mothers  and  children  and  lands,  with  per- 
secutions ;  and  in  the  world  to  come,  life 
everlasting. 


THE  SACRAMENT  OF  MA  TR1MONY.  511 

and  the  joys  of  less  heroic  spirits — a  hundredfold 
more,  even  in  this  life.  Sadly  had  Jesus  spoken  to 
the  timid  rich  man ;  joyfully  did  He  hail  these  brave 
poor  men  as  His  associate  judges  in  the  day  of  the 
world's  reckoning. 


CHAPTER   LXXXVII. 

THE    SACRAMENT   OP    MATRIMONY. 

Matt.  xix.  1-9  ;  Mark  x.   1-12. 

UR  Saviour's  purpose  to  elevate  mankind 
to  a  higher  order  of  life  is  in  no  way 
more  plainly  shown  than  by  His  legis- 
lation on  marriage.  He  restored  the 
marital  relation  to  its  original  condi- 
tion, which  is  the  equality  of  husband 
and  wife.  This  necessarily  excludes 
a  plurality  of  wives,  and  makes  divorce  from  the 
marriage  bond  unlawful.  All  the  rights  of  the  man 
and  of  the  woman  are  equal,  save  his  prerogative 
of  authority  in  the  household.  Good  order  requires 
that  the  woman  should  obey  her  husband,  but  this 
is  not  the  submission  of  a  lower  to  a  higher  grade 
of  being,  but  the  loving  conformity  due  to  an 
equal  on  account  of  the  superior  force  inherent  in 
the  male  sex.  This,  however,  is  counterbalanced 
by  the  allegiance  the  man  pays  to  certain  superior 
virtues  of  the  woman,  such  as  sympathy,  patience, 
and  gentleness.  If  the  husband  rules  the  wife  by 
power,  he  is  in  turn  subject  to  her  by  reason  of 
her  winning  qualities.  And,  again,  she  rules  all 
because  she  rules  the  children.  This  equality  of 
natural  prerogatives  Jesus  determined  to  safeguard 
by  the  holiest  sanctions  of  religion,  and  therefore  He 


512  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

raised  marriage  to  the  dignity  of  a  sacrament  of  the 
New  Law. 

From  the  highest  place  in  all  natural  institutions 
He  elevated  it  to  a  supernatural  condition — the  re- 
lation of  man  and  wife  in  the  Church  of  Christ  is  a 
divine  one,  a  sacrament  among  sacraments.  In  the 
religion  of  Jesus  Marriage  ranks  with  Baptism  which 
is  the  door  of  heaven,  with  the  Eucharist  which  is 
the  embrace  of  the  Son  of  God,  with  the  Apostolic 
sacrament  of  Holy  Order,  with  the  sacrament  of 
Penance  which  is  the  cleansing  of  the  soul  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb.  And,  furthermore,  as  Christian 
Baptism  is  the  new  birth  of  the  individual,  so  has 
Christian  marriage  been  the  new  birth  of  society. 
The  Christian  family  has  been  the  germ  of  the  Chris- 
tian state, 

The  subject  of  marriage  had  been  treated  of 
previously  by  the  Divine  Teacher,  but  it  came  up 
again  as  Jesus  was  leaving  the  borders  of  Galilee 
and  Samaria  and  going  eastward,  passing  over  the 
Jordan,  making  the  circuit,  already  mentioned,  which 
was  to  end  in  Jerusalem.  He  healed  many  sick 
persons  on  His  journey  ;  the  fame  of  which,  as  well 
as  His  entering  a  land  well  traversed  by  caravans, 
brought  Him  more  into  contact  with  the  Pharisees. 
They  had  doubtless  heard  rumors  of  the  strictness 
of  His  doctrine  on  marriage,  going  as  it  did  far 
beyond  the  Jewish  rule,  and  rescinding  all  the 
Mosaic  reasons  for  divorce.  This  was  an  offence  to 
them,  for  they  shared  to  the  full  the  Oriental  views 
on  woman  and  her  relations  to  man ;  they  hardly 
held  even  to  the  dispensations  of  Moses. 

The  question  of  divorce,  St.  Matthew  tells  us,  was 
one  on  which  they  hoped  to  gain  a  cause  of  accusa- 
tion. "Is  it  lawful,"  they  asked,  "for  a  man  to 


THE  SACRAMENT  OF  MA  TRIMONY.  513 

put  away  his  wife  for  every  cause  ?  ' '  Our  Saviout 
in  answering  drew  from  them  the  legality  of  divorce 
under  the  law,  and  then  without  the  least  hesitation 
He  abrogated  it :  "He  saith  to  them  :  What  did  Moses 
command  you  ?  Who  said :  Moses  permitted  to  write 
a  bill  of  divorce,  and  to  put  her  away.  To  whom 
Jesus  answering,  said  :  By  reason  of  the  hardness  of 
your  heart  he  wrote  you  that  precept." 

Here  our  Saviour  touched  them  to  the  quick.  He 
could  not  elevate  woman  without  disclosing  the 
sensuality  of  man.  God  through  Moses  had  permitted 
divorce  for  grave  reasons,  interpreted  by  the  most 
reasonable  school  of  Jewish  Scribes  as  meaning  adul- 
tery or  its  equivalent.  Under  more  lax  interpreta- 
tion abuses  had  grown  up,  until  in  our  Lord's  time 
the  wife  might,  under  cover  of  the  law,  be  made  the 
victim  of  the  husband's  caprice,  or  of  his  lust  for 
another  woman.  There  was  in  His  day  no  plurality 
of  wives,  which  though  lawful  in  the  letter  had  been 
gradually  abolished  by  the  spirit  of  the  Mosaic  dis- 
pensation. But  the  evil  of  divorce  was  general  and 
notorious.  It  was,  indeed,  protested  against  by  the 
better-minded  and  led  to  much  controversy  among 
the  doctors  of  the  law,  which  sometimes  waxed 
furious ;  but  the  miserable  fact  remained,  however 
much  the  doctors  discussed  :  men  put  away  their 
wives  without  any  serious  difficulty.  To  involve 
Jesus  in  the  dispute,  and  to  openly  array  Him  against 
the  licentious  men  in  power,  was  the  purpose  of  this 
questioning. 

Marriage  questions  are  often  complicated.  But  the 
Christian  foundation  principle  is  simple.  Christ  taught 
it  plainly,  and,  furthermore,  He  thereby  reaffirmed 
the  original  teaching  of  God  to  man  in  the  marriage 
of  Adam  and  Eve.  It  is  the  twofold  quality  of 


5H  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

matrimony,  that  is  to  say,  monogamy  and  perpetuity. 
One  man  and  one  woman  make  the  marriage  state 
as  God  wills  it  in  the  kingdom  of  His  Son,  as  He 
willed  it  at  the  beginning.  That  these  two,  once 
validly  joined,  shall  possess  exclusive  right  to  each 
other  until  separated  by  death,  is  the  divine  law 
of  perpetuity.  Both  of  these  rules  had  been  relaxed 
under  the  old  dispensation,  which  permitted  divorce 
for  cause  of  adultery,  and  allowed  remarriage,  and  also 
permitted  a  plurality  of  wives.  Jesus  put  an  end  to 
this.  He  restored  monogamy  and  perpetuity  to  the 
marriage  relation.  The  main  question  was  about 
divorce,  because,  as  we  have  noted,  polygamy  had 
long  ceased  among  the  Jews. 

The  animation  of  perpetuity  was  solemn  and 
decisive:  "Have  you  not  read,  that  He  who  made 
man  from  the  beginning  made  them  male  and  female?  " 
We  are  struck  by  the  use  of  the  word  man,  in  the 
singular  number,  in  the  first  clause  of  this  sentence, 
in  the  plural  number  in  the  second  clause.  So  that 
literally  Jesus  makes  the  one  man  to  be  the  union 
of  the  male  and  female — a  singularly  powerful  style 
of  teaching  the  law  of  marital  unity.  He  continued  : 
"  For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  father  and  mother, 
and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife,  and  they  two  shall  be 
in  one  flesh."  He  drives  home  His  doctrine  by  the 
emphasis  of  repetition,  and  by  the  invocation  of  God 
as  the  author  of  the  union, — the  imprecation  of  God's 
anger  upon  separation  :  * '  Therefore  now  they  are  not 
two,  but  one  flesh.  What  therefore  God  hath  joined 
together,  let  no  man  put  asunder." 

Men  may  unmake  human  contracts  according  to 
the  conditions  agreed  upon  by  themselves.  But 
marriage  is  God's  work,  and  its  perpetuity  is  un- 
conditional ;  it  can  be  broken  only  by  God  Himself  in 


THE  SACRAMENT  OF  MA  TRIMONY. 


the  decree  of  death.  The  Jews  felt 
this  to  be  both  an  innovation  and 
a  hardship.  If  union  with  a  single 
woman  in  perpetual  wedlock  be  dif- 
ficult to  the  cold-blooded  European, 
it  is  much  more  so  to  the  Oriental  : 
"They  said  to  Him"  (once  more 
appealing  to  their  ancient  law- 
giver) :  "Why  then  did  Moses 
command  to  give  a  bill  of  divorce 
and  to  put  away?  "  Our  Saviour 
insisted  on  the  reason  already  given  : 
"Because  Moses  by  reason  of  the 
hardness  of  your  heart  permitted 
you  to  put  away  your  wives,  but 
from  the  beginning  it  was  not  so." 
And  now,  as  our  Saviour  con- 
tinued His  explanation,  He  fore- 
stalled an  objection.  For,  it  might 
and  would  be  asked,  shall  there  be 
no  relief  for  a  husband  or  wife  in- 
jured by  the  adultery  of  an  un- 
faithful partner  ?  Yes,  every  relief 
consistent  with  the  perpetuity  of  the  marriage  relation. 
Adultery,  the  fornication  of  one  or  other  of  the  parties, 
if  it  does  not  sever  the  tie,  yet  forfeits  all  rights  of  sup- 
port, of  affection,  of  company,  and  allows  the  putting 
away  of  the  guilty  one.  The  honor  due  to  marital 
purity  is  honor  due  to  God.  While  insisting,  therefore, 
upon  the  sanctity  and  perpetuity  of  the  marriage 
bond,  our  Saviour  •  allows  separation  for  cause  of  in- 
fidelity :  "And  I  say  to  you,  that  whosoever  shall 
put  away  his  wife,  except  it  be  for  fornication,  and 
shall  marry  another,  committeth  adultery,  and  he 
;that  shall  marry  her  that  is  put  away,  committeth 


"THEY   ARE  NOT  TWO,    BUT  ONE   FLESH." 

And  there  came  to  him  the  Pharisees, 
tempting  him  and  saying  :  Is  it  lawful  for 
a  man  to  put  away  his  wife  for  every 
cause  ?  But  he  answering,  saith  to  them  : 
What  did  Moses  command  you  ?  Who 
said  :  Moses  permitted  to  write  a  bill  of 
divorce,  and  to  put  her  away.  To  whom 
Jesus  answering,  said  :  By  reason  of  the 
hardness  of  your  heart  he  wrote  you  that 
precept.  Have  you  not  read,  that  he 
who  made  man  from  the  beginning  made 
them  male  and  female  ?  And  he  said : 
For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  father 
and  mother,  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife, 
and  they  two  shall  be  in  one  flesh. 
Therefore  now  they  are  not  two,  but  one 
flesh.  What  therefore  God  hath  joined  to- 
gether, let  no  man  put  asunder.  They 
said  to  him:  Why  then  did  Moses  com- 
mand to  give  a  bill  of  divorce  and  to  put 
away  ?  He  said  to  them  :  Because  Moses 
by  reason  of  the  hardness  of  your  heart 
permitted  you  to  put  away  your  wives,  but 
from  the  beginning  it  was  not  so ;  and  I 
say  to  you,  that  whosoever  shall  put  away 
his  wife,  except  it  be  for  fornication,  and 
shall  marry  another,  committeth  adultery, 
and  he  that  shall  marry  her  that  is  put 
away,  committeth  adultery.  And  in  the 
house,  again  his  disciples  asked  him  con- 
cerning the  same  thing.  And  he  saith  to 
them  :  Whosoever  shall  put  away  his  wife 
and  marry  another,  committeth  adultery 
against  her.  And  if  the  wife  shall  put 
away  her  husband  and  be  married  to  an- 
other, she  committeth  adultery. 


516  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

adultery."  So  far  St.  Matthew  reports  the  Master's 
teaching  on  this  very  grave  subject. 

From  the  Evangelist's  narrative  many  have  fancied 
that  divorce  in  the  extreme  meaning  of  the  term, 
totally  annulling  the  union,  was  allowed  for  the  one 
cause  of  adultery.  But  the  Church  of  Christ  in  all 
ages  has  taught  otherwise.  It  is  plain  that  the 
Church  is  right.  For  we  do  not  find  our  Saviour 
allowing  a  second  marriage  either  of  the  guilty  or 
innocent  party  after  the  "  putting  away"  for  cause 
of  adultery.  No  such  leave  is  anywhere  given  in  the 
New  Testament.  This  is  furthermore  plain  from  St. 
Mark,  who  pieces  out  St.  Matthew's  account  and  fills 
it  to  its  complete  teaching.  Read  it,  and  see  a  simple 
rule  laid  down  more  privately  to  the  disciples  after 
the  general  instruction.  One  cannot  urge  an  implied 
doctrine  in  contravention  of  an  explicit  one:  "And 
in  the  house,  again  His  disciples  asked  Him  con- 
cerning the  same  thing.  And  He  saith  to  them  : 
Whosoever  shall  put  away  his  wife  and  marry  an- 
other, committeth  adultery  against  her.  And  if  the 
wife  shall  put  away  her  husband  and  be  married  to 
another,  she  committeth  adultery." 

This  teaching  in  St.  Mark  was  given  immediately 
after  that  recorded  in  St.  Matthew,  and  was  in- 
tended as  a  further  explanation  of  the  marriage 
dogma ;  the  omission  in  St.  Mark  of  adultery  as  a 
reason  for  separation  is,  therefore,  conclusive  that 
adultery  did  not  break  the  bond  of  marriage,  though 
it  allowed  the  putting  away  of  the  guilty  party. 
Read,  also,  St.  L,uke's  (xvi.  18)  version  of  the 
Master's  rule  :  "  Every  one  that  putteth  away  his 
wife  and  marrieth  another  committeth  adultery,  and 
he  that  marrieth  her  that  is  put  away  from  her 
husband  committeth  adultery."  So,  also,  taught  St. 


CHRISTIAN  VIRGINITY  AND  CELIBACY.  517 

Paul  (I.  Cor.  vii.  10,  n,  and  Romans  vii.  2,  3), 
and  the  discipline  of  the  Church  has  ever  maintained 
as  the  authentic  meaning  of  Christ  the  unconditional 
perpetuity  of  the  marital  relation  during  the  life  of 
its  parties,  allowing  for  mutual  right  of  separation 
on  account  of  adultery  or  other  grave  causes,  though 
never  the  right  of  marrying  again  during  the  life- 
time of  the  other  party. 


CHAPTER  LXXXVIII. 

CHRISTIAN     VIRGINITY     AND      CELIBACY. — JESUS     AND 
LITTLE   CHILDREN. 

Matt.  xix.  10-15  •    Mark  x.  13-16  ;  Luke  xviii.  15-17. 

HEN  Jesus  taught  the  sanctity  of  mar- 
riage He  appealed  to  the  original  reve- 
lation of  God,  and  to  the  happy  unity 
of  man  and  wife  in  the  unfallen  hu- 
manity of  our  first  parents.  He  also 
opened  the  brightest  pages  in  the  book 
of  nature,  those  which  tell  of  the 
human  heart  glowing  with  the  highest 
natural  joy  in  that  union,  one  with 
one,  which  consecrates  the  best  of 
man's  gift  to  the  best  of  woman's,  ennobles  both 
at  the  expense  of  neither,  and  provides  in  the  Chris- 
tian home  the  sweetest  and  strongest  training  of  our 
souls  for  good  lives  and  happy  deaths.  His  doctrine 
of  marriage  put  an  end  for  ever  to  divorce,  for  ever 
anchored  fast  in  His  religion  the  dignity  of  wife  and 
husband,  father  and  mother.  He  legislated  for  all 
ages  and  all  races  in  the  interests  of  the  one  only 
earthly  paradise,  the  Christian  family. 


5i8  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

It  is  strange  that  this  view  did  not  strike  the 
Apostles  at  once.  Instead  of  rejoicing  at  the  eleva- 
tion of  woman  and  the  dignity  of  that  state  of  life 
which  sanctifies  the  sexual  longing,  the  most  fiery 
passion  of  human  nature,  the  disciples  could  not  for 
the  moment  rise  above  the  common  Jewish  level. 
They  saw  their  own  sex  losing  one  of  its  most 
cherished  prerogatives — the  right  of  divorce ;  for  it 
is  the  male  that  most  greedily  covets  sexual  license. 
Therefore  they  said  to  Jesus:  "If  the  case  of  a 
man  with  his  wife  be  so,  it  is  not  expedient  to 
marry." 

Now  this  gave  the  Master  an  opportunity  of  dis- 
cussing the  alternative  of  men  and  women  marrying 
or  of  remaining  single.  Jesus  loved 
the  state  of  virginity  most  pro- 
foundly. His  mother  was  from  first 
to  last  a  virgin,  the  Virgin  of  all 
religion  and  all  history.  Martha 
and  Mary  of  Bethany  were,  the  one 
a  virgin,  the  other  a  penitent  sin- 
gle woman  ;  they  were  joined  to- 

take  it.  ,,  r 

gether  in  a  community  of  work  and 


"  HE  THAT   CAN   TAKE   IT,   LET   HIM 
TAKE  IT." 

His  disciples  say  unto  him  :  If  the  case 
of  a  man  with  his  wife  be  so,  it  is  not  ex- 
pedient to  marry.  Who  said  to  them  :  All 
men  take  not  this  word,  but  they  to  whom 
it  is  given.  For  there  are  eunuchs  who 
were  born  so  from  their  mother's  womb, 
and  there  are  eunuchs  who  were  made  so 
by  men,  and  there  are  eunuchs  who  have 
made  themselves  eunuchs  for  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven.  He  that  can  take  it,  let  him 


prayer.  From  the  beginning  of  His  religion  to  our 
own  day  Christ's  power  over  human  nature's  strong- 
est instinct  is  shown  in  the  chastity  of  the  men 
and  women  who  are  most  exclusively  devoted  to  the 
love  of  God  and  the  service  of  God's  people.  The 
state  of  virginity  thus  becomes  a  state  of  holiness 
higher  than  even  Christian  matrimony.  For  those 
who  are  called  to  it  by  the  inner  voice  of  God,  re- 
ligious virginity  is  a  very  special  means  of  holiness. 
No  doubt,  practically  considered,  marriage  is  calcu- 
lated better  to  sanctify  the  mass  of  mankind  than  is 
virginity.  But  virginity  is  better  calculated  than 


CHRISTIAN  VIRGINITY  AND  CELIBACY.  $19 

marriage  to  sanctify  the  heroic  souls  whom  God  sets 
apart  for  the  higher  perfection — the  chosen  few. 
Later  on  Jesus  will  teach  that  one  of  the  perfections 
of  souls  in  Heaven  is  that  * '  they  shall  neither  marry 
nor  be  married  ' '  there. 

Hence  the  Master  makes  the  plain  distinction  be- 
tween the  many,  destined  by  God  for  marriage,  and 
the  few  destined  for  celibacy:  "All  men,"  He  an- 
swered His  disciples,  "take  not  this  word,  but  they 
to  whom  it  is  given.  For  there  are  eunuchs  who 
were  born  so  from  their  mother's  womb,  and  there 
are  eunuchs  who  were  made  so  by  men,  and  there 
are  eunuchs  who  have  made  themselves  eunuchs  for 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  No  one,  then  or  now,  could 
have  taken  our  Lord  to  mean  in 
His  last  use  of  the  word  eunuch 
anything  else  but  a  voluntary  giving 
up  of  the  natural  right  to  marry. 
He  teaches  herein  the  Christian 
practice  and  doctrine  of  celibacy. 
It  has  been  attached  almost  univer- 
sally to  the  priestly  state — quite  uni- 
versally in  the  West  of  Europe  ;  uni- 
versally to  the  episcopate,  and  to 
the  community  life  of  men  and  wo- 
men living  in  convents  and  monasteries  for  the  sake 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Christian  chastity  is 
joined  to  Christian  poverty  and  Christian  obedience, 
forming  the  threefold  state  of  Gospel  perfection.  Our 
Saviour  concludes  by  a  distinct  affirmation  of  liberty 
in  the  choice  of  this  state,  the  only  compulsion  be- 
ing the  interior  drawing  of  the  Holy  Ghost:  "He 
that  can  take  it,  let  him  take  it." 

It  was  singularly  appropriate  that  Jesus,  just  after 
His  weighty   teachings   on  the  great  social  question 


WHAT  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD   IS  LIKE. 

Then  were  little  children  brought  to 
him,  that  he  should  impose  hands  upon 
them  and  pray.  And  the  disciples  rebuked 
them  that  brought  them ;  whom  when 
Jesus  saw,  he  was  much  displeased,  and 
saith  to  them  :  Suffer  the  little  children  to 
come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of 
sudi  is  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Amen  I 
say  to  you,  whosoever  shall  not  receive 
the  Kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child, 
shall  not  enter  into  it.  And  embracing 
them,  and  laying  his  hands  upon  them, 
he  blessed  them;  and  ...  he  de- 
parted from  thence. 


520 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


of  marriage  and  celibacy,  should  have  shown  His 
love  of  little  children.  We  have  seen  how  once  before 
He  had  held  up  childhood  as  the  type  of  character 
formed  by  His  doctrine  and  influence.  He  here  re- 
peats the  lesson:  "Then  were  little  children  brought 
to  Him,  that  He  should  impose  hands  upon  them 
and  pray.  And  the  disciples  rebuked  them  that 
brought  them ;  whom  when  Jesus  saw,  He  was  much 
displeased,  and  saith  to  them :  Suffer  the  little  chil- 
dren to  come  unto  Me,  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of 
such  is  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Amen  I  say  to  you, 
whosoever  shall  not  receive  the  Kingdom  of  God  as 
a  little  child,  shall  not  enter  into  it.  And  embracing 
them,  and  laying  His  hands  upon  them,  He  blessed 
them;  and  He  departed  from  thence." 


BOOK  III. 


The  Passion  and  Death  of 
Jesus. 


521-521 


THE  PASSION  AND  DEATH  OP  JESUS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

"BEHOLD  WE  GO  UP  TO  JERUSALEM." 
Matt.  xx.  17-19  ;  Mark  x.  32-34  ;  Luke  xviii.  31-33. 

"AND  they  were  in  the  way  going  up  to  Jeru- 
salem; and  Jesus  went  before  them,"  says  St.  Mark, 
* '  and  they  were  astonished,  and  following  Him  were 
afraid."  It  was  the  deep  sorrow  upon  the  face  and 
form  of  Jesus  that  awed  the  Apostles.  He  led  them 
slowly  along,  and  they  knew  that  every  step  brought 
Him  nearer  to  the  mystery  which  He  had  named 
THE  CROSS.  Were  they  also  to  suffer  ?  Did  they  now 
approach  that  final  test  of  their  love  which  He  had 
described:  "Yea,  and  even  life  it- 
self for  My  sake?"  There  He 
walked  before  them,  thoughtful  and 
sad,  His  head  bent,  His  eyes  vacant. 
Their  Master  was  upon  the  Way 
of  the  Cross. 


And  they  were  in  the  way  going  up  t 
Jerusalem  ;  and  Jesus  went  before  then 
and  they  were  astonished,  and  followin 
him  were  afraid.  And  taking  again  th 
twelve,  he  began  to  tell  them  the  thing 
that  should  befall  him,  saying  :  Behol 
we  go  up  to  Jerusalem,  and  all  thing 
shall  be  accomplished  which  were  writte 
by  the  prophets  concerning  the  Son  c 
Man.  For  he  shall  be  betrayed  to  th 
chief  priests,  and  to.  the  scribes,  an 
ancients ;  and  they  shall  condemn  him  t 
death,  and  shall  deliver  •  him  to  th 
Gentiles;  and  they  shall  mock  him,  an 
spit  on  him,  and  scourge  him,  and  ki 
_  ,  .  him  :  and  the  third  day  he  shall  rise  agaii 

Messias  knew    that  He    would   be 


As  evening  fell  the  moon  Nisan, 
a  bright  silver  sickle  in  the  sky, 
told  the  coming  of  the  Passover. 
When  that  moon  should  be  full  the 


524  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

dead  and  buried ;  its  mild  beams  were  like  a  pall 
upon  His  soul.  That  new  moon  as  it  shone  out  over 
Israel  brought  joy  to  the  people  ;  it  brought  woe  to 
their  Redeemer. 

Preparations  for  the  Passover  were  now  being 
made  in  every  family.  Happy  those  who  could  go 
to  Jerusalem ;  these  were  beginning  in  every  part 
of  Palestine  to  arrange  for  their  caravans  by  groups 
of  families,  and  already  the  Apostles  could  see  the 
signs  of  departure  in  the  wayside  villages.  Some  of 
the  wealthier  Jews  even  passed  them  on  the  road, 
hurrying  forward  to  secure  lodging  for  that  Passover 
whose  celebration  (though  they  knew  it  not)  was  to 
excel  in  majesty  the  very  visit  of  the  Angel  in 
Egypt,  yes,  that  of  the  creation  of  the  human  race 
itself,  and  to  be  the  last  solemn  commemoration  of 
Israel's  deliverance  from  the  Egyptian  bondage. 

Jesus  took  His  twelve  Apostles  apart  and  repeated 
the  prophecy  of  His  Passion.  He  named  each  particu- 
lar event  in  it,  more  in  detail  than  He  had  done 
before.  His  soul  was  like  a  tablet  from  which  He 
read  to  His  followers  the  fiery  words  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets.  Those  sages  of  God,  sublime  Isaias,  plain- 
tive Jeremias,  musical  David,  now  seemed  to  Jesus 
like  the  bailiffs  of  His  Father's  court,  summoning 
Him  to  stand  His  trial  as  the  proxy  of  the  human 
race,  to  be  condemned  and  executed.  How  solemn 
His  tones,  how  glorious  the  calm  courage  of  His 
voice  and  mien  as,  like  a  general  before  the  battle, 
He  addressed  His  little  army,  and  led  them  onward  to 
the  victory  of  the  Cross.  "  Behold  we  go  up  to  Jeru- 
salem, and  all  things  shall  be  accomplished  which 
were  written  by  the  prophets  concerning  the  Son  of 
Man.  For  He  shall  be  betrayed  to  the  chief  priests, 
and  to  the  scribes,  and  ancients ;  and  they  shall  con- 


"BEHOLD   WE  GO  UP  TO  JERUSALEM."  525 

demn  Him  to  death,  and  shall  deliver  Him  to  the 
Gentiles ;  and  they  shall  mock  Him,  and  spit  on 
Him,  and  scourge  Him,  and  kill  Him  ;  and  the  third 
day  He  shall  rise  again." 

These  words  chilled  the  Apostles  to  the  bone. 
Such  language  was,  indeed,  no  longer  a  novelty  in 
their  Master's  discourse  with  them,  but  they  could 
not  comprehend  it:  "And  they  understood  none  of 
these  things,  and  this  word  was  hid  from  them,  and 
they  understood  not  the  things  that  were  said."  St. 
Luke's  triple  repetition  of  the  Apostles'  inability  to 
understand  their  Master  adds  singular  emphasis  to 
the  fact.  For  they  must  have  thought,  What  bad 
dream  is  this  ?  that  the  most  loving  of  masters  should 
be  betrayed,  mocked,  spit  on,  scourged,  killed,  by 
the  leaders  of  the  race  of  which  He  is  the  Saviour. 
We  may  imagine  them  saying  to  each  other,  Well, 
He  is  full  of  mysteries ;  this  is  but  one  of  His  many 
deep  prophetical  utterances ;  to  Jerusalem  we  are 
going  with  a  large  band  of  Galileans  ;  many  others 
will  be  there  before  us  and  will  come  after  us  ;  men 
from  everywhere  in  Israel  will  join  us ;  the  peaceful 
.power  of  the  Master's  voice  will  persuade  everybody, 
or  if  not  His  peaceful  voice,  then  His  resistless  might 
will  conquer:  "the  Kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand"; 
He  has  often  prophesied  it,  and  that  is  no  mystery 
but  plain  as  day. 

Such  must  have  been  their  mind.  They  dreamed 
of  triumphs  while  He  foresaw  Calvary. 


526 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   AMBITION   OF   THE   SONS   OF   ZEBEDEE. 

Matt.  xx.  20-28 ;  Mark  x.  35-45. 

OING  up  to  Jerusalem  for  the  establishment  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God  excited  the  ambition  of  the 
Apostles,  which  rose  to  the  point  of  expression  in 
the  case  of  the  sons  of  Zebedee,  James  and  John. 
Too  diffident — for  naturally  they  were  gentle  souls 
— to  face  the  Master  on  a  subject  more  than  doubt- 
ful, they  enlisted  their  mother,  Salome,  in  the  cause  ; 
or  perhaps  it  was  she  who  had  incited  their  attempt. 
The  end  was  that  both  Salome  and  her  two  sons,  taking 
the  Master  apart,  shared  in  a  dialogue  which  is  only 
fully  understood  by  putting  both  the  accounts,  St.  Mat- 
thew's and  St.  Mark's,  into  one  connected  whole.  First 
she  asked  the  favor ;  but  Jesus,  instead  of  addressing 
His  answer  to  her,  spoke  to  them.  The  petition  was 
introduced  by  Salome's  innocently  undertaking  to  hin- 
der refusal  by  asking  a  blind  promise.  She  had  often 
served  the  Master  and  His  associ- 
ates, she  was  one  of  the  most  faith- 
ful of  the  women  who  were  part  of 
His  usual  company  ;  she  had  given 
her  two  boys  to  the  Apostolate. 
What  more  natural  than  that  she, 
in  her  simplicity,  should  ask  great 
things  and  try  to  make  sure  before- 
hand of  a  favorable  answer  :  "  Mas- 
ter, we  desire  that  whatsoever  we 
shall  ask,  Thou  wilt  do  it  for  us. 
But  He  said  to  them :  What  would 
you  that  I  should  do  for  you  ?  She 
saith  to  Him :  Say  that  these  my 


Then  came  to  him  the  mother  of  the 
sons  of  Zebedee,  with  her  sons,  James  and 
John,  adoring  and  asking  something  of 
him,  saying  :  Master,  we  desire  that  what- 
soever we  shall  ask,  thou  wilt  do  it  for  us. 
But  he  said  to  them  :  What  would  you  that 
I  should  do  for  you  ?  She  saith  to  him  : 
Say  that  these  my  two  sons  may  sit,  the 
one  on  thy  right  hand,  and  the  other  on 
thy  left,  in  thy  kingdom.  Jesus  answering 
said  :  You  know  not  what  you  ask.  Can 
you  drink  of  the  chalice  that  I  drink  of  ? 
or  be  baptized  with  the  baptism  wherewith 
I  am  baptized  ?  But  they  said  to  him  : 
We  can.  And  Jesus  saith  to  them  :  You 
shall  indeed  drink  of  the  chalice  that  I 
drink  of  ;  and  with  the  baptism  wherewith 
I  am  baptized,  you  shall  be  baptized.  But 
to  sit  on  my  right  hand  or  on  my  left  is 
not  mine  to  give  to  you,  but  for  them 
for  whom  it  is  prepared  by  my  Father. 


THE  SONS  OF  ZEBEDEE.  527 

two  sons  may  sit,  the  one  on  Thy  right  hand,  and 
the  other  on  Thy  left,  in  Thy  Kingdom.  Jesus  an- 
swering said :  You  know  not  what  you  ask." 

Asking  such  a  favor  was  a  direct  attack  (though 
made  very  ignorantly),  as, well  upon  the  humility  of 
the  Apostolic  life  as  upon  the  independence  of  our 
Saviour  in  ordering  the  grades  and  offices  of  His 
following.  Again,  it  was  an  early  instance  of  the 
attempts  ever  since  made — and  not  always  so  un- 
successfully as  this  one — to  interpose  private  in- 
fluence as  the  motive  force  in  public  religious  affairs. 
All  this  Jesus  rebuked,  kindly  indeed,  for  He  knew 
His  people  well,  but  emphatically.  He  chided  their 
ignorance,  He  insisted  on  the  personal  heroism  of 
the  Apostolic  state,  and  He  declared  the  giving  of 
preferments  to  be  His  Father's  prerogative.  "Can 
you  drink  of  the  chalice  that  I  drink  of?  or  be 
baptized  with  the  baptism  wherewith  I  am  baptized? 
But  they  said  to  Him  :  We  can.  And  Jesus  saith  to 
them :  You  shall  indeed  drink  of  the  chalice  that  I 
drink  of ;  and  with  the  baptism  wherewith  I  am 
baptized,  you  shall  be  baptized.  But  to  sit  on  My 
right  hand  or  on  My  left  is  not  Mine  to  give  to 
you,  but  for  them  for  whom  it  is  prepared  by  My 
Father." 

These  words  must  have  recalled  to  them  His 
solemn  greeting  of  Peter's  confession  of  faith  in 
Cesarea  Philippi  :  "Flesh  and  blood  hath  not  re- 
vealed it  to  thee,  but  My  Father  who  is  in  heaven.*' 
That  it  was  which  gained  Peter  the  office  these 
Apostles  envied  him.  If  one  shall  have  full  merit 
of  sharing  the  Lord's  bitter  cup  of  suffering,  and 
every  honor  of  partaking  in  His  baptism  of  blood, 
yet  shall  he  not  be  raised  above  his  fellows  for  that 
reason,  but  only  because  he  has  been  set  apart  by 


528  LIFE  Of  JESUS  CffRlST. 

the  lawful  authority  of  God  in  His  Church.  All  are 
called  to  the  undeserved  honor  of  suffering  with 
Jesus;  only  a  few  to  the  equally  undeserved  honor 
of  sharing  His  external  authority. 

God's  will  is,  that  in  His  Church  obedience  and 
authority  shall  be  two  of  the  many  forms  of  the 
supreme  virtue  of  brotherly  love.  Among  our  Saviour's 
brethren  it  is  not  as  it  was  among  the  heathen, 
where  authority  and  obedience  meant  the  training 
of  men  to  kill  their  fellows,  and  the  wrenching  of 
the  people's  money  from  them  that  their  princes 
might  rule  over  them  as  gods.  No.  In  the  Church 
of  Christ  the  divine  equality  of  all  the  brethren  is 
not  broken  by  difference  in  office,  for  all  office 
comes  from  God  and  the  form  of  government  is  strictly 
theocratic.  The  successor  of  St.  Peter  signs  himself 
Servant  of  the  servants  of  God.  Yet  there  is  no 
obedience  so  prompt  and  loving  as  that  which  is 
paid  to  him  and  to  the  bishops  and  priests  who  with 
him  exercise  Apostolic  authority. 

To  enforce  this  the  Master  called  the  Apostles  to- 
gether. He  saw  that  the  ten  were  displeased  with 
James  and  John,  and  while  He  placated  their  anger 
with  His  kindly  tones,  He  gave  to  all  a  salutary 
lesson  in  humility.  He  contrasted  the  heathen  way 
(and  it  is  the  way  of  the  worldly-minded  even  among 
Christians)  with  His  own  way. 

Redemption  was  the  purpose  of  Jesus,  not 
dominion.  Authority  helps  redemption,  and  is  divine, 
but  it  is  to  be  both  exercised  and  obeyed  for  Christ's 
sake  and  for  men's  salvation.  Otherwise  obedience 
degenerates  into  mere  outward  conformity,  and  author- 
ity is  but  the  same  kind  of  rule  as  the  heathen 
suffer  from  their  princes.  In  this  lesson  of  One  who 
is  both  the  gentlest  and  most  powerful  of  masters 


THE  SOJVS  OF  ZEBEDEE.  529 

all  the  wisdom  of  goveining  and  all  the  perfection 
of  obedience  is  contained.  Not  force  but  charity 
rult'S  in  Christ's  kingdom  ;  not  constraint  but  affection 
inspires  the  obedience  of  its  subjects.  The  main 
purpose  of  authority  is  so  to  enlighten  the  conscience 
of  the  people  as  to  make  the  inner  and  the  outer 
voice  of  God  identical.  The  main  purpose  of  obedi- 
ence is  to  demonstrate  that  men 
so  love  Christ  the  Lawgiver  as  to 
conform  instinctively  to  the  will  of 
His  representatives,  knowing  that 
by  being  obedient  unto  death  the 
Lord  of  all  wrought  ' 4  the  redemp- 
tion of  many." 


And  the  ten  hearing  it,  began  to  be 
much  displeased  at  James  and  John.  But 
Jesus  calling  them,  saith  to  them :  You 
know  that  they  who  seem  to  rule  over  the 


ey  w 

gentiles,  lord  it  over  them :  and  their 
princes  have  power  over  them.  But  it 
is  not  so  among  you  :  but  whosoever  will 
be  greater,  shall  be  your  minister.  And 
whosoever  will  be  first  among  you,  shall 
be  the  servant  of  all.  For  the  Son  of  Mao 
also  is  not  come  to  be  ministered  unto,  but 
to  minister,  and  to  give  his  life  a  re- 
demption  for  many. 


By  this  doctrine  the  external 
and  internal  action  of  God  upon 
the  soul  (one  exercised  by  Church  officers  and  the 
other  by  the  Holy  Spirit's  inspirations  of  love)  be- 
come identical  :  law  is  effaced  by  love.  The  syn- 
thesis of  law  and  love  is  thus  expressed  by  St. 
Francis  de  Sales : 

' '  We  cannot  help  conforming  ourselves  to  what 
we  love.  In  this  sense,  as  I  think,  the  great  Apostle 
said  that  the  law  was  not  made  for  the  just : 
(I.  Tim.  i.  9),  for  ^  truth  the  just  man  is  not  just 
but  inasmuch  as  h^  .as  love,  and  if  he  have  love, 
there  is  no  need  to  press  him  by  the  rigor  of  the 
law,  love  being  the  most  pressing  teacher  and 
solicitor,  to  urge  the  heart  which  it  possesses  to  obey 
the  will  and  the  intention  of  the  beloved.  Love 
is  a  magistrate  who  exercises  his  authority  without 
noise,  without  pursuivants  or  sergeants,  but  by  that 
mutual  complacency  by  which,  as  we  find  pleasure 
in  God,  so  also  we  desire  to  please  Him.  Love  is 
the  abridgment  of  all  theology.  .  .  .  Thus,  then, 


530 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


does  heavenly  love  conform  .us  to  the  will  of  God, 
and  make  us  carefully  observe  His  commandments,  as 
being  the  absolute  desire  of  His  divine  majesty  whom 
we  will  to  please.  So  that  this  complacency,  with  its 
sweet  and  amiable  violence,  foreruns  that  necessity  of 
obeying  which  the  law  imposes  upon  us,  converting 
this  necessity  into  the  virtue  of  love,  and  every 
difficulty  into  delight."  {Treatise  on  the  Love  of  God ', 
Book  VIII.  chapters  i.  and  v.) 


THE  WAY  TO  JERUSALEM  BY  THE  BETHANY  ROAD. 


THE  BLIND  MAN  A  T  THE  GA  TE  OF  JERICHO.    531 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   BUND   MAN   AT  THE   GATE   OF  JERICHO. 
Matt.  xx.  29-34.  ;  Mark  x.  46-52  ;  Luke  xviii.  35-43. 

JERICHO,  which  had  been  the  ancient  capital  of 
the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  was  in  our  Saviour's  day  a 
proverb  of  beauty.  It  was  embowered  in  roses,  and  it 
was  the  centre  of  a  region  of  orchards,  vineyards,  and 
wheat  fields.  At  present  scarcely  a  trace  is  left  of 
this  famous  city,  once  so  splendid  with  nature's  gene- 
rosity and  man's  industry.  The  region  of  gardens 
through  which  oiir  Saviour  passed  towards  Jerusalem, 
gathering  hourly  about  Him  as  He  went  a  greater 
multitude  of  pilgrims  going  to  the  Passover,  is  now 
a  desolate  waste,  and  the  fair  city  itself  has  dwindled 
into  a  huddled  group  of  miserable  Arab  cabins. 

He  approached  the  city's  eastern  entrance,  coming 
from  the  ford  of  the  Jordan  over  which  Josue  had  led 
the  people  of  Israel  dry  shod.  As  the  Master's 
company  came  near,  two  blind  men,  St.  Matthew 
tells  us,  were  stationed  at  the  gate  begging. 

St.  Luke  and  St.  Mark  mention  only  one  of  them, 
the  spokesman  in  the  event  which 
occurred.  His  name  was  Bar-Time- 
us,  the  son  of  Timeus.  St.  Luke 
says  that  the  miracle  took  place  as 
Jesus  "drew  nigh  to  Jericho,"  and 
the  other  two  Evangelists  say  that 
it  was  when  He  went  out  of  Jericho. 
Perhaps  Jesus,  tarrying  in  the  city 
by  day,  had  left  it  in  the  evening  and 
spent  the  night  outside  of  the  east- 
ward walls  in  the  camp  of  His  little 
caravan  ;  in  departing  for  Jerusalem 


Two  blind  men  sitting  by  the  wayside 
begging." 


53*  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

He  would  either  make  a  circuit  around 
the  walls,  or  pass  straight  through  the 
city.  In  either  case  the  miracle  might 
have  been  wrought  when  He  approach- 
ed the  westward  gate  as  He  was  leav- 
ing the  neighborhood  of  the  city,  jour- 
neying towards  Jerusalem.  Other  solu- 
tions of  this  difficulty,  a  minor  one  at 
most,  have  been  offered. 

When  the  son  of  Timeus  heard  the 
sound  of  voices  and  the  noises  of  a 
great  crowd,  "  he  asked  what  this 
meant.  And  they  told  him  that  Jesus 
« Son  of  David,  have  mercy  on  me !"  of  Nazareth  was  passing  by."  His 
heart  leaped  into  his  mouth  :  Jesus  of  Nazareth  !  The 
prophet  who  gave  sight  to  the  blind !  He  had  no 
more  doubt  that  Jesus  could  give  him  eyesight  than 
that  he  was  at  that  moment  straining  his  poor  dead 
eyes  into  black  darkness.  Instantly  his  faith  found 
voice,  instantly  the  unspeakable  dread  of  missing  his 
only  chance  burst  out  into  a  clamorous  prayer  :  "And 
he  cried  out,  saying,  Jesus,  Son  of  David,  have  mercy 
on  me  !  ' ' 

Jesus  had  not  yet  reached  the  beggars'  station 
when  this  shout  sharply  cut  the  air.  He  was, 
probably,  discoursing  upon  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
perhaps  about  to  answer  some  important  question, 
when  the  din  of  the  blind  man's  prayer,  full  of 
panic,  repeated  over  and  over  again,  deafened  all 
ears.  The  annoyance  was  great,  and  to  some  so  in- 
tolerable that  "they  that  went  before  rebuked  the 
blind  man  that  he  should  hold  his  peace."  This 
only  made  the  uproar  the  greater.  The  blind  man 
was  determined  to  be  heard.  There  was  something 
touching  in  this  beggar's  persistence ;  it  moved  the 


THE  BLIND  MAN  AT  THE  GATE  OF  JERICHO.    533 

soul  of  Jesus  \\ith  compassion..  "  But  he  cried  out 
much  more  :  Son  of  David,  have  mercy  on  me!  And 
Jesus  standing  commanded  him  to  be  brought  unto 
Him.  And  they  call  the  blind  man,  saying  to  him: 
Be  of  better  comfort;  arise,  He  calleth  thee."  Then 
came  the  blind  beggars,  the  crowd  opening  right 
and  left,  kindly  hands  offering  to  lead  the  unfortu- 
nate men  to  Jesus.  Bar-Timeus  in  his  eagerness 
went  before,  stumbling  along  towards  the  voice : 
"Casting  off  his  garments,  he  leaped  up  and  came 
to  Jesus." 

It   is    well    known    that    the    loss    of   one    of  the 
senses    sharpens   the    keenness   of    the   others.      The 
hearing    of    the    blind    is    preternaturally    developed. 
How  sweet,  then,   must  have  sounded  in  the  ears  of 
the    two    blind    men    the    tones    of    that    voice,    the 
most   musical   that    ever   spoke!     "And  Jesus   said: 
What  will  }  e  that  I  do  to  you  ?     They  say  to  Him  : 
Lord,    that  our  eyes   be  opened.     And  Jesus   having 
compassion  on  them,  touched   their  eyes,  saying 
[to  each  of   them]  :  Receive  thy  sight ;    thy  faith 
hath   made  thee   whole.     And   immediately  they 
saw,  and  followed  Him,  glorifying  God.     And  all 
the  people  when  they  saw  it  gave  praise  to  God." 

Few  can  realize  what  happened  to  the  blind 
men.  It  was  as  if  their  souls  had  been  enlarged 
to  take  in  the  universe :  the  blue  sky  of  Pales- 
tine, its  glorious  sun  marching  across  the  zenith, 
the  green  trees  and  flowering  hedges,  the  curi- 
ously gazing  crowd,  the  gentle,  smiling  face  of 
xt.  o  f  Tk  -j  11  u  i  ..  i  "Lord,  that  I  may  see.' 

the  Son  01  David — all   absolutely  new,   not  any- 
thing of  it  ever  seen  before.     And  now  this  heaven  on 
earth  of  clear  eyesight  is  possessed  by  them,  and  is  to 
be  possessed  in  easy  enjoyment  for  ever.     No  wonder 
that  Bar-Timeus  and  his  companion  glorified  God. 


534  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

They  are  types  of  the  many  millions  of  converts 
to  the  true  religion  of  Christ,  whose  eyes  in  all  ages 
are  opened  by  the  touch  of  the  Son  of  David,  after 
their  hearts  have  faithfully  given  forth  their  earnest 
prayer  for  light.  Converts  follow  Christ  with  the 
eager  zeal  of  deep  thankfulness,  often  outdoing  those 
who  never  have  known  how  sad  is  the  darkness  of 
religious  error. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ZACHKUS    THE   PUBUCAN. 

Luke  xix.  i—io. 

ANOTHER  incident,  not  miraculous  but  highly  in- 
structive nevertheless,  marked  the  Master's  passage 
through  Jericho.  It  is  His  colloquy  with  Zacheus, 
the  publican. 

This  man  was  not  only  a  member  of  that  guild 
of  Satan,  as  the  Jewish  people  considered  it,  the 
gatherers  of  the  Roman  tribute,  but  he  was  a  chief 
among  them.  He  had  made  a  fortune  at  the  business, 
and  was  loaded  with  its  spoils  as  well  as  tainted 
with  its  infamy.  Yet  he  was  a  worthy  man,  either 
because  he  had  dealt  honestly  with  both  the  govern- 
ment and  the  people,  or — and  this  is  more  likely — 
because,  having  been  dishonest,  he  had  disgorged  his 
thefts  and  had  done  it  in  true  repentance.  With 
God  that  settles  all  scores;  but  not  so  with  men, 
who  are  often  loath  to  register  the  decrees  of  divine 
mercy. 

Zacheus  having  become  a  religious  man,  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Messias  through  his  town  stirred  him 
deeply.  The  miracle  of  Bar-Titneus  and  his  com- 
panion aroused  everybody's  curiosity,  and  moved 


ZACHEUS  THE  PUBLICAN. 


535 


Zacheus  with  a  burning  purpose  at  least  to  behold 
the  great  Man  of  God — he  could  hardly  hope  to  do 
more.  So  far  he  had  failed  to  see  Jesus.  The  crowd 
was  an  essentially  orthodox  one,  made  up  of  pilgrims 
to  the  Holy  City,  and  he  could  not  safely  make  his 
way  among  them.  Then,  too,  he  was  an  under- 
sized man,  and  the  burly  Galileans  walled  Jesus  in 
and  Zacheus  out  with  an  impenetrable  barrier.  "And 
he  sought  to  see  Jesus,  who  He  was,  and  he  could 
not  for  the  crowd,  because  he  was 
low  of  stature.  And  running  be- 
fore, he  climbed  up  into  a  sycamore - 
tree,  that  he  might  see  Him,  for 
He  was  to  pass  that  way." 

This  was  an  act  of  humility. 
Boys,  indeed,  do  such  things  with- 
out a  thought ;  but  it  was  a  child- 
like act  of  self-forgetfulness  in  a 
rich  man.  He  had,  indeed,  forgot 
his  sense  of  dignity,  forgot  every- 
thing but  Jesus,  and  he  received 
his  reward.  The  Saviour  saw  him, 
a  gray-bearded  man,  perched  like 
a  street  urchin  on  the  lower  limb 
of  a  wide-spreading  tree,  and  He 
stopped'  beneath  him.  "  And  He  said  to  him  :  Zache- 
us make  haste  and  come  down,  for  this  day  I  must 
abide  in  thy  house.  And  he  made  haste  and  came 
down,  and  received  Him  with  joy." 

Joy  filled  the  soul  of  Zacheus.  His  house  was 
not  far,  perhaps  at  the  very  spot,  and  he  quickly 
led  the  Master  to  it.  But  "  when  all  saw  it,  they 
murmured,  saying  that  He  was  gone  to  be  a  guest 
with  a  man  that  was  a  sinner."  These  whispers 
grew  into  murmurs  and  then  into  open  protests ;  per- 


And  entering  in,  he  walked  through 
Jericho.  And  behold  there  was  a  man 
named  Zacheus  :  who  was  the  chief  of  the 
publicans,  and  he  was  rich.  And  he  sought 
to  see  Jesus  who  he  was,  and  he  could  not 
for  the  crowd,  because  he  was  low  of 
stature.  And  running  before,  he  climbed 
up  into  a  sycamore-tree  that  he  might  see 
him  :  for  he  was  to  pass  that  way.  And 
when  Jesus  was  come  to  the  place,  looking 
up,  he  saw  him,  and  said  to  him:  Zacheus, 
make  haste  and  come  down  :  for  this  day 
I  must  abide  in  thy  house.  And  he  made 
haste  and  came  down,  and  received  him 
with  joy.  And  when  all  saw  it,  they  mur- 
mured, saying  that  he  was  gone  to  be  a 
guest  with  a  man  that  was  a  sinner.  But 
Zacheus  standing  said  to  the  Lord,  Behold, 
Lord,  the  half  of  my  goods  I  give  to  the 
poor  :  and  if  I  have  wronged  any  man  of 
anything,  I  restore  him  four-fold.  Jesus 
said  to  him  :  This  day  is  salvation  come  to 
this  house  :  because  he  also  is  a  son  of 
Abraham.  For  the  Son  of  Man  is  come  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost. 


536 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


haps  one  of  the  disciples  voiced  them  directly  in  the 
Saviour's  ear.  But  Jesus  undertook  the  defence  of 
Zacheus,  and  it  was  a  crushing  defeat  for  the  mur- 
murers.  To  the  Master  the  publican  needed  not  to 
defend  himself  had  he  but  known  it,  for  the  com- 
mission of  every  crime  against  Heaven  would  not 
hinder  Jesus  from  the  company  of  the  criminal.  But 
Zacheus  had  the  best  possible  justification  any  sinner 
can  have — repentance,  reparation,  and  amendment. 
Zacheus,  therefore,  halted  the  movement  to  his 
house;  and  "standing,  said  to  the  Lord:  Behold, 
Lord,  the  half  of  my  goods  I  give  to  the  poor,  and 
if  I  have  wronged  any  man  of  anything,  I  restore 
him  four- fold."  This  touched  the  sore  spot  with  a 
healing  balm.  The  hand  that  loosens  its  grip  On 
another  man's  money  is  the  hand  of  a  hero.  Most 
thieves  hang  on  till  hand  and  money  and  body  and 
soul  are  cast  into  hell.  The  penance  of  the  miser 
who  makes  sure  of  pardon  by  four- fold  re- 
stitution is  heroic,  especially  when  it  over- 
flows the  measure  by  gifts  to  the  poor.  Such 
was  the  penance  of  Zacheus. 

For  this  reason  the  Lord  loved  him,  and  sin- 
gled him  out  for  public  favor.  As  they  came 
to  this  chief  publican's  home,  "Jesus  said  to 
him  :  This  day  is  salvation  come  to  this  house," 
and  then  turning  to  the  multitude :  ' '  because 
he  also  is  a  son  of  Abraham.  For  the  Son  of 
Man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was 
lost."  The  Lord  might  especially  praise  Zacheus 
because  he  had  not  waited  to  be  sought,  but, 
"  running  before,"  had,  with  that  simplicity  which 
our  Saviour  so  much  prized,  climbed  a  tree  to 
"AnThe  made  haste  and '  see  and  near  Him  tne  better ;  had  already  made 
came  down."  amends  for  his  rapacity  by  .giving  away  half 


THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  TEN  POUNDS.  537 

his  fortune ;  and  had,  upon  the  least  scru^  of 
unjust  dealing,  made  sure  of  pardon  by  reparation 
four  times  over.  All  this  is  the  admirable  defence 
of  Zacheus  as  he  hindered  the  Master  from  entering 
his  house  and  breaking  his  bread  till  he  had  shown 
that  it  was  not  spotted  with  the  blood  of  his  victims. 
An  ancient  tradition  tells  us  that  after  our 
Saviour's  death  and  resurrection  and  the  coming  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  Zacheus  gave  up  all  things  for 
Christ's  sake,  became  a  distinguished  disciple  of  St. 
Peter  and  was  made  Bishop  of  Cesarea. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  TKN  POUNDS. 

Luke   xix.  11-28. 

BUT  neither  the  incident  of  Zacheus  nor  the 
miracle  of  the  blind  men  made  at  the  time  a  deep 
impression  on  the  followers  of  Jesus.  Their  minds 
were  preoccupied  with  the  Kingdom  of  God,  which 
they  thought  would  be  manifested  by  the  Messias 
at  the  coming  Passover  in  Jerusalem.  Their  thoughts 
about  that  kingdom  were  widely  unlike  those  of 
Jesus,  as  we  know.  The  most  striking  difference 
was  in  point  of  time.  "  As  they  were  hearing  these 
things,  He  added  and  spoke  a  parable,  because 
He  was  nigh  to  Jerusalem,  and  because  they  thought 
that  the  Kingdom  of  God  should  immediately  be 
manifested."  Jesus  knew  that  a  terrible  trial  must 
intervene,  a  trial  unto  death  for  Himself,  but  for 
His  disciples  a  literally  crucial  test  of  their  fidelity; 
and  for  the  leaders  of  the  Jewish  nation  a  final  and 
fatal  loss  of  their  place  as  citizens  of  God's  Kingdom. 
As  was  His  custom,  He  taught  the  right  view  by 


538  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

a  psvable — that  of  the  Ten  Pounds  :  Jesus  is  going 
to  enter  into  His  kingdom  and  to  return ;  that  is, 
He  will  enter  through  the  cruel  gate  of  death  into 
His  Father's  palace  to  be  invested  with  His  eternal 
kingship,  and  then  come  back  in  triumph  at  the 
Resurrection.  As  He  departs,  the  Jews  cry  after 
Him,  "Away  with  Him!  Crucify  Him!"  In  the 
hearts  of  His  disciples,  however,  He  has  left  His 
teaching,  the  prophecy  of  His  Resurrection  and  of 
the  founding  of  a  spiritual  kingdom,  just  as  a  rich 
man  entrusts  his  capital  to  his  agents  for  invest- 
ment. When  Jesus  rises  from  the  dead,  He  expects 
to  find  among  His  followers  an  increase  of  love  and 
of  faith,  the  gold  and  the  silver  of  His  treasury. 

Some  set  about  their  Master's  work  with  zeal. 
The  Apostles  and  disciples  were  not  required  to  do 
much  in  comparison  with  what  He  would  do  and 
suffer  for  them  ;  but  they  must  at  least  stand  the  test 
of  the  Saviour's  condemnation  and  death,  and  thus 
increase  their  faith  and  love — "  faithful  over  few 
things."  To  these  faithful  servants  the  superabundant 
graces,  the  high  dignities  of  office,  should  be  dis- 
tributed . 

Others,  who  were  not  equal  even  to  this,  must 
suffer  the  penalty  of  spiritual  sloth.  These  were 
cowards,  time-servers,  sluggards.  It  availed  them 
little  to  say  that  they  feared  their  Master  too  much  to 
risk  His  money  by  trading  :  that  is,  spiritual  sloth 
shall  not  be  allowed  the  excuse  so  commonly  offered, 
"I  fear  I  am  not  worthy,  therefore  I  will  lie  quiet." 
Many  a  Christian  thus  veils  his  indolence.  Their 
opportunity,  their  grace,  their  honor,  all  go  to  the 
faithful  who  have  had  to  take  their  places  and  must  be 
rewarded  accordingly.  Against  the  slothful  and  the 
cowardly  Jesus  turns  their  own  words  into  a  con- 


THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  TEN  POUNDS. 


539 


elusive  argument.  It  is  a  lesson  to  those  whose  in- 
dolence misuses  such  maxims  as,  "It  is  better  not 
to  try  than  to  try  and  to  fail ' '  ;  especially  those 
whose  over-prudent  advice  dampens  the  energy  of 
others ;  above  all  to  superiors  who,  for  fear  of  failure, 
will  neither  act  themselves  nor  let  others  act. 

In  a  subsequent  repetition  of  this  parable,  Jesus  says 
that  the  unprofitable  servant  was  ' '  wicked  and  slothful, ' ' 
and  was  cast  out  into  exterior  darkness  amid  weeping 
and  gnashing  of  teeth.  In  the  pres- 
ent application  of  it  He  merely  dis- 
misses him,  stripped  and  disgraced. 

Then  comes  the  terrible  ending 
— the  fate  of  the  rebels  against  the 
new-crowned  King:  "But  as  for 
those  my  enemies,  who  would  not 
have  me  reign  over  them,  bring  them 
hither;  and  kill  them  before  me." 

It  is  the  divine  sentence  upon 
the  Jews,  executed  by  themselves 
and  their  chosen  rulers,  the  Roman 
governors.  They  will  refuse  the 
kingship  of  Jesus  ;  they  will  impre- 
cate His  blood  upon  themselves  and 
their  posterity  ;  they  will  publicly 
and  officially  prefer  Caesar  to  rule 
over  them  instead  of  the  Son  of 
God.  And  Caesar  will  rule  over 
them  indeed ;  he  will  scourge  them 
into  revolt,  destroy  their  priesthood, 
massacre  the  bulk  of  the  race,  and 
scatter  the  remnant  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth. 

"And  having  said  these  things,  He 
went  before,  going  up  to  Jerusalem. ' ' 


He  said  therefore  :  A  certain  nobleman 
went  into  a  far  country  to  receive  for  him- 
self a  kingdom,  and  to  return.  And  call- 
ing his  ten  servants,  he  gave  them  ten 
pounds,  and  said  to  them :  Trade  till  I 
come.  But  his  citizens  hated  him :  and 
they  sent  an  embassage  after  him,  saying  : 
We  will  not  have  this  man  to  reign  over 
us.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  he  returned, 
having  received  the  kingdom  :  and  he  com- 
manded his  servants  to  be  called,  to  whom 
he  had  given  the  money,  that  he  might 
know  how  much  every  man  had  gained 
by  trading.  And  the  first  came,  saying  : 
Lord,  thy  pound  hath  gained  ten  pounds. 
And  he  said  to  him  :  Well  done,  thougood 
servant ;  because  thou  hast  been  faithful 
in  a  little,  thou  shalt  have  power  over  ten 
cities.  And  the  second  came,  saying : 
Lord,  thy  pound  hath  gained  five  pounds. 
And  he  said  to  him :  Be  thou  also  over  five 
cities.  And  another  came,  saying  :  Lord, 
behold  here  is  thy  pound,  which  I  have 
kept  laid  up  in  a  napkin.  For  I  feared 
thee,  because  thou  art  an  austere  man  : 
thou  takest  up  what  thou  didst  not  lay 
down,  and  thou  reapest  that  which  thou 
didst  not  sow.  Hesaith  to  him  :  Out  of  thy 
own  mouth  I  judge  thee,  thou  wicked  ser- 
vant. Thou  knewest  that  I  was  an  austere 
man,  taking  up  what  I  laid  not  down,  and 
reaping  that  which  I  did  not  sow  :  And 
why  then  didst  thou  not  give  my  money 
into  the  bank,  that  at  my  coming  I  might 
have  exacted  it  with  usury  ?  And  he  said 
{ to  them  that  stood  by  :  Take  the  pound 
away  from  him,  and  give  it  to  him  that 
hath  the  ten  pounds.  And  they  said  to 
him :  Lord,  he  hath  ten  pounds.  But  I  say 
to  you,  that  to  every  one  that  hath  shall  be 
given,  and  he  shall  abound  ;  and  from  him 
that  hath  not,  even  that  which  he  hath  shall 
be  taken  from  him, 


540  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

"SIX  DAYS   BEFORE  THE   PASSOVER/' 
John  xi.  55,  5<5/   xii.  i. 

ESUS  could  count  six  days  before  Him 
now ;  then  all  would  be  over.  It  was  the 
eighth  day  of  the  month  Nisan  and  the  Sab- 
bath when  He  reached  Bethany.  At  sun- 
down of  the  thirteenth  of  the  month  the 
Passover  festival  would  begin,  and  then  His 
life  would  be  done  and  His  body  in  the 
grave.  Those  six  days  stretched  out  before 
Him  as  the  concluding  week  of  a  long  campaign  ap- 
pears to  a  general  on  the  eve  of  battle  ;  the  events 
which  decide  the  fate  of  the  army  and  the  country 
crowd  together  more  interest  than  all  the  many  months 
or  even  years  of  marches  and  countermarches  that  have 
gone  before.  Jesus  knew  that  He  was  soon  to  raise  the 
Cross,  the  standard  of  His  Kingdom,  to  rally  about 
it  the  elect  of  all  nations,  and  to  abide  the  result 
of  the  conflict. 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  He  allowed  Him- 
self to  ignore  His  prophetic  knowledge  of  His  sufferings. 
We  know  that  His  soul  roi>e  up  in  a  great  act  of  courage, 
equal  to  His  love  for  men,  as  He  contemplated  what 
the  Father  had  revealed  to  Him — the  betrayal,  the 
trial  and  condemnation,  the  scourging,  the  mockery, 
the  Cross. 

While  His  soul  beheld  all  this  with  the  mingled 
terror  of  the  man  and  joy  of  the  hero,  He  led  His 
disciples  from  Jericho  over  the  difficult  and  danger- 
ous road  to  Bethany.  Loving  hearts  awaited  Him 
there ;  hateful  ones  awaited  Him  in  Jerusalem,  where 
His  enemies  were  set  upon  putting  an  end  to  His 


"SIX  DA  YS  BEFORE  THE  PASSOVER."  541 

career,  then  and  there.  They  watched  for  Him  among 
the  pilgrims  coming  in  advance.  "The  Pasch  of 
the  Jews  was  at  hand  ;  and  many  from  the  country 
went  up  to  Jerusalem  before  the  Pasch  to  purify 
themselves.  They  sought  therefore  for  Jesus."  Spies 
stood  at  every  gate  and  mingled  with  every  caravan, 
and  as  they  reported  to  their  masters  in  the  Temple, 
these  were  impatient.  "  They  discoursed  one  with 
another,  standing  in  the  Temple :  What  think  you, 
that  He  has  not  come  to  the  festival-day  ?  ' '  They 
feared  He  would  escape  them.  Their  news  was  first 
that  He  was  on  His  way  from  the  neighborhood  of 
Jericho.  Many  of  those  already  arrived  had  seen 
Him,  heard  Him,  told  of  His  movements  in  the 
direction  of  the  Holy  City.  Had  He  turned  aside 
from  the  road  ?  Had  He  retreated  with  His  followers 
into  the  Perea?  Then  they  learned  of  His  arrival 
at  Bethany,  very  near  the  city,  and  of  His  halt 
there.  They  panted  for  His  blood,  and  knew  that 
they  must  now  choose  the  best  time  to  kill  Him.  They 
dreadtd  His  Galileans,  although  the  Roman  garrison 
was  strengthened  at  that  time  with  special  purpose  to 
suppress  any  turbulence  of  the  assembled  Jews. 

Hence  the  conspirators  impatiently  waited  for  Him. 
Meantime  they  had  their  partisans  fully  instructed  : 
"And  the  chief  priests  and  the  Pharisees  had  given 
a  commandment,  that  if  any  man  knew  where  He 
was,  he  should  tell,  that  they  might  apprehend  Him." 
This  was  the  situation  at  Jerusalem,  as  "Jesus  six 
days  before  the  Pasch  came  to  Bethania,  where 
I^azarus  had  been  dead,  whom  Jesus  raised  to  life." 


542  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

MARY   MAGDALENE   ANOINTS  JESUS. 
-     Matt.  xxvi.  6-13;  Mark  xiv.  3-9  ;  fohn  xii.  2—11. 

HE    last    Sabbath    that    the    Master    was    to    spend 
I   with   His  disciples  had  drawn  to   a  close  amid  His 
loving  friends  of  Bethany.     Chief  among  them  were 
Mary  and  Martha  and  Lazarus ;  but  another  is  now 
named,  Simon,    called  the  leper.     He,   perhaps,   had 
been  healed  by  Jesus;  at  any  rate  he  would  now  pay 
)  Him   honor   by  giving  Him  a  banquet.     Some  have 

conjectured  that  Simon  was  the  father  of  the  three 
pious  friends  of  Jesus,  or  at  least  a  very  near 
relative,  perhaps  their  guardian.  He  was  certainly 
most  intimate  with  them,  for  Martha  served  at  table 
during  the  feast.  Lazarus  was  one  of  the  guests, 
and  Mary  was  the  chief  figure  in  a  strange  cere- 
mony which  has  made  this  banquet  very  memorable. 
This  was  the  public  anointing  of  Jesus,  in  antici- 
pation of  His  death  and  burial.  She  had  done  this 
once  Lefore  as  a  thank-offering  for  her  conversion; 
now  slie  is  to  show  her  love  by  repeating  the  touch- 
ing function  as  a  sign  of  her  belief  and  acceptance 
of  the  Master's  prophecy  of  His  death.  It  is  to  peni- 
tential love  that  Jesus  granted  this  privilege.  "Mary 
therefore,  having  an  alabaster  box,  took  a  pound  of 
ointment  of  right  spikenard  of  great  price,  and  anointed 
the  feet  of  Jesus  as  He  was  at  table,  and  wiped 
His  feet  with  her  hair."  Beautiful  and  typical  cere- 
mony !  Those  ringlets  and  tresses  which  had  served 
lustful  vanity  are  now  consecrated  into  a  crown  of 
chastity  by  the  ointment  wiped  from  the  patient  feet 
of  Jesus. 

The  peoples  of  the  Orient  use  perfumes  much  more 


MARY  MAGDALENE  ANOINTS  JESUS.  543 

than  Europeans,  and  it  is  a  mark  of  honor  to  a 
guest  to  anoint  his  feet  with  fragrant  essences  after 
they  have  been  washed  at  the  end  of  a  journey.  On 
this  occasion  the  very  vase  in  which  the  perfume  was 
sealed  was  of  piecious  material,  as  was  frequently  the 
case  with  very  costly  ointments  and  spices ;  Mary 
broke  it  as  she  began  her  loving  ministry. 

Mary  did  not  scruple  the  high  price  of  her  oint- 
ment, since  it  honored  the  Son  of  God,  and  served  her 
own  most  holy  aspirations.  Not  so  Judas  Iscariot,  of 
all  beings  alive  the  most  unlike  the  generous  Mary 
of  Bethany.  He  was  purse-bearer  for  Jesus  and  the 
Apostles,  and  he  coveted  the  box  of  ointment.  Why, 
thought  he,  was  it  not  handed  over  to  him  as  a  gift 
to  the  common  fund?  "Then  Judas  Iscariot,  he  that 
was  about  to  betray  Him,  said :  Why  was  not  this 
ointment  sold  for  three  hundred  pence  and  given  to 
the  poor  ?  ' ' 

There  never  was  a  day  when  the  worldly-minded 
did  not  assume  to  teach  the  pious  how  to  be  thrifty 
and  prudent.  If  devout  souls  build  noble  churches 
and  altars  to  God,  they  are  lectured  for  not  spending 
all  on  the  poor.  If  they  spend  all  on  the  poor,  they 
are  lectured  for  favoring  idleness  and  pauperism.  The 
world,  which  knows  nothing  of  heavenly  wisdom,  will 
teach  Heaven's  children  how  to  be  wise  according  to 
God.  It  is  in  this  connection  that  we  are  again 
brought  to  the  study  of  the  saddest,  the  most  perplex- 
ing of  all  the  problems  in  the  Gospel — Judas  Iscariot. , 
His  treason  to  Jesus  is  prefaced  by  his  admonition  to 
Mary  for  lacking  human  prudence — -a  painful  case  of 
the  incompatibility  between  the  utilitarian  and  the  re- 
ligious spirit.  St.  John  reveals  his  motives:  "Now 
he  said  this,  not  because  he  cared  ior  the  poor,  but  be- 
cause h§  was  a  thief. " 


544  LIFE  OP  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Yet  he  spoke  the  sentiments  of 
the  disciples,  as  many  another  clever 
rogue  has  pushed  himself  forward 
and  become  the  spokesman  of  honest 
but  unthinking  companions.  Theft 
was  his  object  and  thrift  his  plea, 
and  thrift  was  thus  made  the  pre- 
text to  mislead  good  souls  to  their 
own  harm.  They  gave  him  a  chorus 
of  approval :  '  *  And  the  disciples 
seeing  it,  had  indignation,  saying: 
To  what  purpose  is  this  waste?" 
It  was  utilitarianism  scandalized  at 
love's  prodigality.  Mary's  act,  so 
solemn,  so  touching,  so  graceful, 
so  fitting  an  acknowledgment  of  the 
royal  dignity  of  the  Master,  must 
be  taken  into  shop  and  weighed 
against  three  hundred  pieces  of 
money — and  found  wanting.  To 
Mary,  love  was  a  prophet ;  the 
words  of  Jesus  reported  to  her  by 
the  Apostles,  foretelling  the  end  at 
Jerusalem,  were  not  all  mystery. 
Her  beloved  Master  was  to  die ;  she  hastened  to 
anoint  Him.  And  Jesus  instantly  took  up  her  de- 
fence ;  His  plea  for  her  was  the  nearness  of  His 
death  :  * '  Let  her  alone  :  against  the  day  of  My  bury- 
ing hath  she  kept  this." 

She  had  bought  the  spikenard  for  the  purpose  of 
anointing  Him  at  His  death  in  Jerusalem,  whither  she 
intended  to  follow  Him.  Another  version  of  the  text 
is :  ' '  Suffer  her  to  keep  it  against  the  day  of  My 
burying  ' '  ;  and  this  supposes  that  she  had  other  vases 
of  it  which  she  had  not  broken,  but  which  she  had 


And  when  he  was  in  Bethania,  in  the 
house  of  bimon  the  leper,  .  .  .  they 
made  him  a  supper  there,  and  Martha 
served  ;  but  Lazarus  was  one  of  them  that 
were  at  table  with  him.  Mary  therefore, 
having  an  alabaster  box,  took  a  pound  of 
ointment  of  right  spikenard  of  great  price, 
and  anointed  the  feet  of  Jesus  as  he  was  at 
table,  and  wiped  his  feet  with  her  hair,  and 
breaking  the  alabaster  box,  she  poured  it 
out  upon  his  head,  and  the  house  was  filled 
with  the  odor  of  the  ointment.  Then  one 
of  his  disciples,  Judas  Iscariot,  he  that  was 
about  to  betray  him,  said  :  Why  was  not 
this  ointment  sold  for  three  hundred  pence, 
and  given  to  the  poor?  Now  he  said 
this,  not  because  he  cared  for  the  poor,  but 
because  he  was  a  thief,  and  having  the 
purse,  carried  the  things  that  were  put 
therein.  And  the  disciples  seeing  it,  had 
indignation,  saying  :  To  what  purpose  is 
this  waste  ?  For  this  might  have  been  sold 
for  much  and  given  to  the  poor.  And 
they  murmured  against  her.  Jesus  there- 
fore said  :  Let  her  alone,  that  she  may  keep 
it  against  the  day  of  my  burial.  Why  do 
you  molest  her  ?  She  hath  wrought  a  good 
work  upon  me.  For  the  poor  you  have  al- 
ways with  you,  and  whensoever  you  will 
you  may  do  them  good ;  but  me  you  have 
not  always.  What  she  had,  she  hath  done  : 
she  is  come  beforehand  to  anoint  my  body 
for  the  burial ;  for  she,  in  pouring  this  oint- 
ment upon  my  body,  hath  done  it  for  my 
burial.  Amen  I  say  to  you,  wheresoever 
this  Gospel  shall  be  preached  in  the  whole 
world,  that  also  which  she  hath  done  shall 
be  told  for  a  memory  of  her. 


MARY  MAGDALENE  ANOINTS 


545 


brought  to  show  Him.  These  the  disciples  coveted, 
but  Jesus  still  insisted  upon  her  liberty  of  action  and 
upon  the  merit  of  her  work :  *  *  Why  do  you  molest 
her?  She  hath  wrought  a  good  work  upon  Me." 
Then  He  took  up  their  argument  about  the  poor.  No 
doubt  to  assist  the  poor  is  a  high  order  of  charity. 
But  to  honor  Jesus,  or  His  Church  or  His  saints,  is  to 
advance  every  form  of  charity.  What  is  done  to  honor 
charity's  Leader  increases  the  number  of  charity's 
votaries  and  enlarges  their  generosity.  The  poor  Jew 
who  accepted  Jesus  as  his  Messias  had  rather  go 
hungry  and  naked  than  to  see  his  Master  buried  with- 
out the  honors  due  to  a  Jewish  Rabbi.  And  so  it 
has  been  ever  since  ;  it  is  the  Catholic  Church  of 
Christ  which  both  loves  and  cares  for  His  poor  best 
of  all  societies,  and  is  best  loved  by  them  in  return  ; 
and  she  is  at  the  same  time  the  most  lavish 
in  honoring  His  public  worship  with  costly 
and  magnificent  temples,  altars,  and  vest- 
ments. No  class  enjoys  the  sight  of  these 
royal  insignia  of  the  King  so  much  as  the 
poor.  None  would  be  so  deeply  injured  as 
the  poor  if,  under  pretence  of  giving 
them  bread,  the  public  honor  of  their 
loving  Saviour  were  hurt  by  cheap 
and  sordid  surroundings  at  His  wor- 
ship. They  live  upon  the  glory  of 
the  Carpenter's  Son  as  well  as  upon 
bread . 

The  moment  chosen  by  Mary  to 
spend  upon  Jesus  the  price  of  a 
precious  ointment  was  opportune, 
and  He  maintained  this  against  the 
murmurers.  The  time  to  help  the 
poor  is  every  day  ;  but  Jesus  was  on 


ALABASTER    BOX  USED    BY    EASTERN 
WOMEN  FOR  JEWELRY  AND   PRE- 
CIOUS CINTMENT. 


546 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


SPIKENARD. 


the  eve  of  His  departure,  and  whoever  would  honor 
Him  must  do  it  at  once:  "For  the  poor  you  have  al- 
ways with  you,  and  whensoever  you  will  you  do  them 
good;  but  Me  you  have  not  always."  How  plaintive 
the  tones  of  His  voice  as  He  again  prophesied  His  ap- 
proaching death  !  How  sad  that  He  must  argue  and 
plead  and  insist  upon  the  joint  right  which  entitled 
Him  to  receive  and  Mary  to  give  by  forestallment 
those  traditional  anointings,  which  He  knew  and  she 
foreboded  would  not  be  possible  between  the  cross  and 
the  sepulchre.  "She  is  come  beforehand,"  He  con- 
tinued, "to  anoint  My  body  for  the  burial;  for  s!:e 
in  pouring  this  ointment  upon  My  body,  hath  done 
it  for  My  burial.  Amen  I  say  to  you,  wheresoever 
this  Gospel  shall  be  preached  in  the  whole  world,  that 
also  which  she  hath  done  shall  be  told  for  a  memory 
of  her."  The  Apostles  themselves  shall  relate  it,  aaid 
they  that  now  condemn  shall  praise  it,  and  the  lesson 
it  teaches  shall  give  heart  to  many  devout  souls 
whose  joy  is  to  help  religion  with  one  hand  and  not 
to  withhold  the  other  from  helping  the  poor. 

So  ended  the  feast  at  Simon's  house.  Meantime 
many  Jews,  a  great  multitude,  says  St.  John,  had 
come  out  from  Jerusalem  to  Bethany,  "  not  for  Jesus' 
sake  only,  but  that  they  might  see  Lazarus,  whom  He 
had  raised  from  the  dead."  Many  believed  in  the 
miracle,  and  their  faith  was  confirmed  by  the  testi- 
mony of  the  dead  man  and  of  his  sisters.  Others 
hated  Jesus  too  bitterly  to  be  capable  of  judging 
fairly  ;  these  came  to  apprehend  Him,  being  of  the 
party  of  the  high-priests  or  in  their  pay.  They  were 
hindered  in  their  purpose  by  the  presence  of  a  great 
number  of  Galileans,  nearly  all  of  them  enthusi- 
astic adherents  of  the  Galilean  Prophet.  Meantime 
Lazarus  was  in  danger  ;  for,  says  St.  John,  "  the  chief 


THE  PROCESSION  OF  PALMS.  547 

priests  thought  to  kill  Lazarus  also,  because  many  of 
the  Jews,  by  reason  of  him,  went  away  and  believed 
in  Jesus."  The  priests'  conspiracy  treated  the  miracles 
of  Jesus  as  tricks  and  magic  and  diabolism,  and 
therefore  Lazarus  was  doomed  to  the  fate  of  an  accom- 
plice of  the  impostor. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE   PROCESSION   OF   PALMS. 

Matt.  xxi.  i—io;  Mark  xi.  i-n ;  Luke  xix.  29—40; 
John  xii.  12-19. 

MEANTIME  Jesus  grew  in  favor  with 
the  common  people.  It  seemed  for  a 
few  days  as  if  their  good  hearts  would 
overcome  the  malice  of  the  conspira- 
tors. The  steadily  increasing  multi- 
tude, made  up  of  pilgrims  from  every 
part  of  the  northern  and  eastern  sec- 
tions of  Israel,  combined  with  those  who  had  come 
out  from  the  city  at  the  great  news  of  the  raising 
of  Lazarus  to  form  a  concourse  of  men  and  women 
portentous  in  size  and  almost  unanimously  favorable 
to  Jesus.  The  distance  between  Bethany  and  the  city 
gate  was  less  than  two  miles.  Back  and  forth  moved 
the  crowds,  full  of  curiosity  and  hope,  and  desire  to 
testify  their  loyalty  to  the  Messias.  Nor  was  there 
any  sign  of  sedition  among  them.  The  repeated  and 
steadfast  declaration  of  the  Master,  that  He  had  no 
purpose  to  found  a  secular  kingdom  and  that  His 
mission  was  wholly  religious,  seems  at  last  to  have 
made  religion  the  dominant  thought  in  men's  minds. 
Yet  He  was  a  king  ;  He  never  refused,  He  always 
accepted  the  royal  title  of  Son  of  David.  Whatever 


548  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

else  it  meant  to  the  people,  it  was  new  plain  that  it 
did  not  mean  war.  Hence  the  stern  eye  of  the  Roman 
power  gazed  calmly  upon  the  commotion  between  Jeru- 
salem and  Bethany,  and  this  agitation  aroused  no  un- 
easiness in  the  fortress  of  Antonia,  now  filled  with  a 
heavy  force  of  legionaries. 

The  word  was  passed  on  the  first  day  of  the  week 
that  Jesus  was  coming  to  the  city.  His  enemies, 
instead  of  taking  measures  to  apprehend  Him,  were 
fain  to  bite  their  lips  and  wait.  For  the  people  were 
too  deeply  stirred  in  favor  of  Jesus  to  allow  of  His 
being  apprehended :  "A  great  multitude  that  had 
come  to  the  festival  day,  when  they  heard  that  Jesus 
was  near  to  Jerusalem,  took  branches  of  palm-trees, 
and  went  forth  to  meet  Him,  crying  :  Ho'sanna,  blessed 
is  He  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  L,ord,  the  King 
of  Israel." 

The  palm-branch  is  an  emblem  of  victory.  Moses 
had  exhorted  the  people  to  express  their  feelings  at 
the  celebration  of  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  by  waving 
palm-branches.  By  instinct,  therefore,  had  the  faith- 
ful Israelites  procured  these  sacred  signs  of  holy  joy, 
to  wave  above  their  heads  as  they  came  forth  to  meet 
Jesus,  while  they  sang  the  prophetic  songs  of  their 
ancient  Scriptures.  Hosanna,  they  cried,  to  the  King 
of  Israel !  All  hail  to  the  Son  of  David  ! 

Jesus  did  not  hesitate  to  accept  these  acclamations 
of  His  people.  He  felt  and  knew  that  He  was  King, 
not  of  armies  indeed  but  of  souls,  not  for  warlike  con- 
quests but  for  the  all-loving  conquests  of  a  merciful 
God.  To  add  to  the  solemnity  He  sent  His  disciples 
to  procure  for  His  use  the  traditional  royal  ass  :  ' '  And 
when  they  drew  nigh  to  Jerusalem  and  were  come  unto 
the  mount  called  Olivet,  then  Jesus  sent  two  of  His 
disciples,  saying  to  them :  Go  ye  into  the  village  that 


THE  PROCESSION  OF  PALMS.  549 


is  over  against  you,  and  immediately  you  shall  find 
an  ass  tied,  and  a  colt  with  her,  on  which  no  man 
ever  hath  sitten;  loose  them  and  bring  them  to  Me. 
And  if  any  man  shall  say  anything  to  you,  say  ye 
that  the  Lord  hath  need  of  them,  and  forthwith  he 
will  let  them  go.  And  the  disciples  going,  found  the 
colt  standing  as  He  had  said  unto  them,  tied  before  the 
gate  without,  iii  the  meeting  of  two  ways,  and  they 
loose  him.  And  as  they  were  loosing  the  colt,  the 
owners  thereof  said  to  them :  Why  loose  you  the  colt  ? 
Who  said  to  them  as  Jesus  had  commanded  them  :  Be- 
cause the  Lord  hath  need  of  him ;  and  they  let  him 
go  with  them." 

Without  doubt  the  owners  were  friends  and  adher- 
ents of  Jesus.  They  felt  honored  that  their  humble 
beast  should  be  the  triumphal  throne  of  the  Messias. 
"  And  the  disciples  brought  the  colt  to  Jesus  and 
they  lay  their  garments  upon  him,  and  He  sat  upon 
him.  Now  all  this  was  done  that  it  might  be  fulfilled 
which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet,  saying :  Tell  ye 
the  daughter  of  Siou  :  Behold  thy  King  cometh  to 
thee,  meek  and  sitting  on  an  ass,  and  a  colt,  the  foal 
of  her  that  is  used  to  the  yoke." 

The  kings  of  this  world  are  mounted  on  war-steeds 


5$o  LTFE  OF  JESVS  CHRIST. 

caparisoned  with  cloth  of  gold  ;  Jesus,  King  of  Israel 
and  of  all  mankind,  poor  in  His  omnipotence,  humble 
in  His  eternal  majesty,  rides  in  triumph  upon  the 
foal  of  an  ass,  caparisoned  with  the  rough  garments 
of  peasants  and  fishermen.  The  mother  ass  was  taken 
in  the  procession  (how  singular  the  simplicity  of 
this  most  popular  of  all  royal  triumphs  !)  to  help  con- 
trol the  foal,  now  used  by  man  for  the  first  time. 

The  people  were  stirred  by  the  deepest  emotions  of 
joy  and  expectation.  The  miracle  of  raising  L/azarus 
from  the  dead — the  climax  of  so  many  others — finally 
overflowed  their  religious  souls.  They  interrogated 
again  and  again  the  witnesses  of  this  greatest  of  the 
wonders  of  their  Prophet,  and  these  witnesses  were 
numerous  and  communicative  :  ' '  The  multitude  there- 
fore gave  testimony,  which  was  with  Him  when  He 
called  L/azarus  out  of  the  grave,  and  raised  him  from 
the  dead.  For  which  reason  also  the  people  came  to 
meet  Him,  because  they  heard  that 
He  had  done  this  miracle." 

How  different  this  popular  en- 
thusiasm from  the  wild  spirit  of  re- 
volt !  Instead  of  seizing  the  weap- 
ons of  war  the  people  cut  branches 
from  the  trees,  their  hearts  full  of 
loving  allegiance  to  Israel's  Messias, 
not  fired  with  hatred  of  the  foreign 
tyrant.  The  shouts  of  battle  were 
unheard ;  instead  of  them  the  praises 
of  God  were  chanted  in  the  holy 
canticles  of  the  prophets.  "The 
whole  multitude  of  His  disciples, 
they  that  went  before  and  they 
that  followed,  began  with  joy  to 
praise  God  with  a  loud  voice,  for  all 


And  the  next  day  a  great  multitude  that 
was  come  to  the  festival-day,  when  they 
had  heard  that  Jesus  was  coming  to  Jeru- 
salem, took  branches  of  palm-trees,  and 
went  forth  to  meet  him  and  cried  :  Hosanna, 
blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord,  the  King  of  Israel.  And  [the 
disciples]  brought  the  [ass's]  colt  to  Jesus 
and  they  lay  their  garments  upon  him,  and 
he  sat  upon  him  ;  as  it  is  written  :  Fear  not, 
daughter  of  Sion  ;  behold  thy  King  cometh 
sitting  upon  an  ass's  colt.  And  a  very  great 
multitude  spread  their  garments  in  the 
way,  and  others  cut  boughs  from  the  trees 
and  strewed  them  in  the  way.  And  when 
he  was  now  coming  near  the  descent  of 
Mount  Olivet,  the  whole  multitude  of  his 
disciples,  they  that  went  before  and  they 
that  followed,  began  with  joy  to  praise 
God  with  a  loud  voice  for  all  the  mighty 
works  they  had  seen,  saying  :  Blessed  be 
the  King  who  cometh  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord,  peace  in  heaven  and  glory  on  high  ! 
Ho«anna  to  the  Son  of  David  !  Blessed 
be  the  kingdom  of  our  father  David  that 
cometh,  Hosanna  in  the  highest ! 


THE  PROCESSION  OF  PALMS. 


551 


the  mighty  works  they  had  seen,  saying  :  Blessed  be 
the  King  who  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  ;  peace 
in  Heaven,  and  glory  on  high  !  Hosanna  to  the  Son 
of  David !  Blessed  be  the  kingdom  of  our  father 
David  that  cometh,  Hosanna  in  the  highest." 

Well   might   the  Roman  garrison  stand   idly  by  as 
this   array    of    Jews   armed    with   palm-branches    ap- 
proached the   city.     The  Romans  were   stern  masters 
and  cruel  enemies,  but  their  cruelty  was  not  wanton, 
like   that   of  the   elder  Herod,    nor   was  panic   alarm 
likely  to  rush  them  to  sudden  slaughter,  even   though 
this  subject  race  saluted  their  Prophet   as  King   and 
as  heir  to  the  throne  of  David.     The  disciples,  who  led 
this   strange  triumphal  march,  were  in   an  ecstasy  of 
religious  excitement,   though  little  understanding   the 
glory  of  the   Master,    which  they  so   deeply   enjoyed. 
St.  John  relates  his  own  feelings  and  that  of  his  fellow- 
Apostles    in    after    days : 
"These    things    the     dis- 
ciples did  not  know  at  the 
first ;  but  when  Jesus  was 
glorified,  then  they  remem- 
bered   that    these    things 
were  written  of  Him,  and 
that   they  had  done  these 
things  to  Him." 

But  what  were  the  feel- 
ings of  the  Pharisees  and 
the  members  of  the  San- 
hedrin  during  this  Proces- 
sion of  Palms  down  the 
slope  of  Mount  Olivet  to- 
wards the  city?  They  were 
a  prey  to  mingled  chagrin 
and  hatred.  Meantime  "  Say  that  the  Lord  hath  need  of  them." 


552 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


"  Behold  thy  King  cometh  sitting  on  an 
ass's  colt." 


some  men,  whether  spies  of  the  chief 
priests  or  half-hearted  adherents  of 
the  Saviour  we  know  not — the  over- 
prudent  Nicodemus  perhaps  among 
them — appealed  to  Jesus  to  give  over 
this  singular  triumph  :  '  •  Master,  re- 
buke Thy  disciples.  To  whom  He 
said  :  I  say  to  you  that  if  these  shall 
hold  their  peace,  the  stones  will  cry 
out."  As  formerly  He  had  exercised 
prudence  in  refusing  a  triumph,  so 
now  He  was  bold  and  fearless  in  ac- 
cepting it.  Prudence  is  not  coward- 
ice, nor  is  courage  rashness ;  all 
wisdom  of  action  lies  in  the  choice 
of  its  occasion,  and  Jesus  would  now 
enjoy  the  people's  homage. 
Such  was  the  Procession  of  the  Palms.  It  was  the 
final  triumph  of  the  Peaceful  Prince,  the  end  of  His 
royal  progress  through  His  kingdom.  Josue's  great- 
est victory  had  been  in  the  march  of  the  unarmed 
L/evites  around  the  walls  of  Jericho,  sounding  trumpets. 
Jesus  conquers  men  and  nations  by  palm-branches, 
by  songs  of  holy  joy,  by  kindly  words  of  affection 
and  of  pardon.  But  Jerusalem  was  hard  to  win, 
whether  with  the  joyful  love  which  the  palm-branch 
symbolizes  in  the  Orient,  or  the  threat  of  doom 
which  Jesus  was  soon  to  launch  against  her. 

How  strange  a  hardness  of  heart  to  resist  the  sweetest 
doctrine  ever  preached  by  a  prophet !  How  deep  the  guilt 
of  resisting  the  loving  kindness  of  God's  messenger, 
bringing  with  Him  as  a  witness  of  His  mission  a  living 
man  whom  He  had  raised  from  the  dead.  This  obdu- 
racy finally  extorted  from  the  Master  the  tearful  ana- 
thema which  ended  the  singular  Procession  of  Palms. 


CHRIST  WEEPS  Ol^ER  JERUSALEM.  553 

CHAPTER    IX. 
CHRIST  WEEPS  OVER  JERUSALEM. 

Matt.  xxi.  10,  n,  and  14-16 ;  Mark  xi.    11 ; 
Luke  xix.  41-4.4;  John  xii.  19. 

THE  nearer  Jesus  came  to  the  city  the  deeper  sank 
His  heart  in  sorrow.  His  feeling  of  triumph  gradual- 
ly died  within  Him  ;  and  at  last  He  melted  into  tears. 
The  air  of  gentle  authority  with  which  He  received 
the  plaudits  of  His  loving  disciples  gave  place  to  one 
of  unspeakable  gloom.  Disappointment,  despondency, 
the  sense  of  failure,  of  love  rejected  and  despised,  the 
sting  of  ingratitude,  crowded  all  joy  out  of  His  heart. 
The  people  were  His,  but  He  had  failed  with  the 
priesthood  and  the  Sanhedrin.  Whatever  man  had  a 
voice  in  Israel  by  divine  appointment  raised  it  against 
Jesus.  Official  Judaism,  the  successor  of  Moses  and 
of  Aaron,  was  false  to  God  His  Father,  corrupt,  venal, 
worldly,  apostate  in  heart  if  orthodox  in  external  ob- 
servance. 

All  this  came  upon  Jesus  as  with  the  multitude  of 
His  followers  He  approached  the  capital  of  His  Father's 
theocracy.  He  saw  the  splendid  Temple  like  a  vision 
of  the  gates  of  heaven  rising  up  before  Him,  but  as 
He  looked  into  the  future  He  saw  this  wonderful  edi- 
fice in  ruins.  He  recalled  the  past,  and  each  of  His 
visits  to  the  holy  place;  every  sermon  of  His  and  of 
the  Baptist  came  before  His  mind  as  a  record  by 
which  Jerusalem  should  be  arraigned,  judged,  con- 
demned, and  destroyed,  instead  of  having  been  in- 
structed unto  life  eternal.  This  sense  of  failure  was 
keen  and  bitter,  for  He  stood  for  the  Father  who  had 
been  rejected  ;  but  the  woe  of  helpless  sympathy,  the 
prophetic  knowledge  of  the  eternal  ruin  of  souls,  was 


554 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


And  when  he  drew  near,  seeing  the  city, 
he  wept  over  it,  saying  :  If  thou  also  hadst 
known,  and  that  in  this  thy  day,  the  things 
that  are  to  thy  peace !  But  now  they  are 
hidden  from  thy  eyes.  For  the  days  shall 
come  upon  thee,  and  thy  enemies  shall 
cast  a  trench  about  thee,  and  compass  thee 
around,  and  straiten  thee  on  every  side, 
and  beat  thee  flat  to  the  ground,  and  thy 
children  who  are  in  thee ;  and  they  shall 
not  leave  in  thee  a  stone  upon  a  stone,  be- 
cause thou  hast  not  known  the  time  of  thy 
visitation. 


"  Shall  not  leave  a  stone  upon 
a  stone." 


more   bitter  yet   and   overwhelmed   His   courage    and 
swept  it  away  in  a  paroxysm  of  tears. 

Jesus  loved  His  native  land,  He  loved  the  Jewish 
race,  whose  purest  blood  flowed  in 
His  veins,  whose  physical  traits  of 
form  and  countenance  were  in  Him 
advanced  to  their  utmost  perfection. 
He  had  come  to  save  the  race  of 
Israel,  had  preached  and  worked 
miracles  to  win  their  souls,  had  been 
faithful  to  the  liturgical  laws  and 
the  holy  places  and  the  holy  times 
appointed  by  His  Father  for  their  sanctification.  All 
was  now  over.  The  predestinated  hours  had  come 
and  gone.  He  knew  and  mourned  it  with  the  sorrow 
of  a  mother  over  her  first-born. 

He  stopped  as  the  city  came  into  full  view,  alighted, 
perhaps,  and  sat  on  the  palm-branches  spread  for  His 
convenience,  and  then  wept  bitterly. 

Forty  years  later,  Jerusalem  went  down  under  the 
blows  of  the  Roman  hammer,  and  was  completely 
destroyed.  Since  then  it  has  for  most  of  the  time 
been  held  by  the  unclean  imposture  of  the  false  prophet 
Mahomet ;  it  has  been  used  by  the  Turks  mainly  as 
their  profitable  show  place  for  devout  Christians  to 
venerate  the  footsteps  and  tomb  of  the  Sa- 
viour. As  for  the  Kingdom  of  Israel  and  the 
priesthood  and  the  Temple,  they  have  total- 
ly vanished  away ;  no  fable  or  dream  has  less 
reality  in  our  day,  or  any  day  since  the  re- 
jection of  Jesus  by  the  official  heads  of  the 
chosen  people,  than  the  glorious  church  and 
nation  of  ancient  Israel. 

When  Jesus  had  ended   His  lament  over 
Jerusalem,  He  arose,  mounted  the  ass's  colt, 


CHRIST  WEEPS  OVER  JERUSALEM.  555 

and  continued  His  progress  into  the  city  ;  and  as  the 
ever-increasing  throng  of  pilgrims  entered,  they  met  His 
triumphal  procession  on  its  way  to  the  Temple.  They, 
as  well  as  all  in  the  city  who  had  not  yet  heard  of  the 
events  of  the  day,  were  moved  with  wonder.  "  Who 
is  this?  "  they  asked.  "  And  the  people  said  :  This  is 
Jesus  the  Prophet,  from  Nazareth  of  Galilee."  Upon 
that  name  hung  the  hopes  of  many  unfortunates. 
' '  And  there  came  to  Him  the  blind  and  the  lame  in 
the  Temple,  and  He  healed  them." 

Again  the  conspirators  sought  to  suppress  the 
emotions  of  the  people  by  an  appeal  to  Jesus  Him- 
self :  '  *  The  chief  priests  and  scribes  seeing  the 
wonderful  things  that  He  did,  and  the  children  cry- 
ing in  the  Temple,  and  saying,  Hosanna  to  the  Son 
of  David,  were  moved  with  indignation,  and  said  to 
Him  :  Hearest  Thou  what  these  say  ?  And  Jesus  said 
to  them:  Yea,  have  you  never  read,  Out  of  the  mouths 
of  infants  and  sucklings  Thou  hast  perfected  praise  f  ' ' 
Upon  which  the  Pharisees  were  cast  down  ;  they  felt 
bitterly  their  humiliating  defeat.  They  "said  among 
themselves :  Do  you  not  see  that  we  prevail  nothing  ? 
Behold  the  whole  world  is  gone  after  Him." 

Night  was  falling  when  Jesus  and  the  twelve  left 
the  precincts  of  the  Temple,  and  under  cover  of  the 
darkness  made  their  way  back  to  Bethany.  More 
than  once  during  these  exciting  days  the  seclusion 
of  Bethany  gave  Jesus  an  interval  of  rest.  Its  quiet 
•was  a  welcome  contrast  with  the  city  and  its 
throngs  of  people,  stirred  to  their  innermost  depths 
by  the  occurrences  of  this  last  period  of  the  public 
activity  of  Jesus,  as  well  as  by  the  never-resting 
machinations  of  the  conspirators. 


556  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER   X. 

JESUS  AND   THE   BARREN   FIG-TREE. 
Matt.  xxi.    17-22 ;  Mark  xi.  11-14,    an^  20-26. 

"  And  in  the  morning,  returning  into  the  city,  He 
was  hungry."  Not  with  bodily  hunger,  for  it  was  just 
after  His  departure  from  the  hospitable  roof  of  Mary 
and  Martha  at  Bethany.  He  hungered  for  souls,  and 
would  show  the  Apostles  a  sign  of  how  tasteless  to 
Him  were  souls  unfruitful  of  faith  and  love:  "And 
when  He  had  seen  afar  off  a  fig-tree  having  leaves, 
He  came,  if  perhaps  He  might  find  something  on  it. 
And  when  He  was  come  to  it,  He  found  nothing  but 
leaves;  for  it  was  not  the  time  for  figs.  And  answer- 
ing, He  said  to  it :  May  no  man  hereafter  eat  fruit  of 
thee  any  more  for  ever.  And  His  disciples  heard  it. 
And  immediately  the  fig-tree  withered  away." 

That  is,  it  began  to  wither  away  on  their  de- 
parture. For  when  they  passed  by  the  next  morning, 
"  they  saw  the  fig-tree  dried  up  from  the  roots.  And 
the  disciples  seeing  it  wondered ;  and  Peter  remem- 
bering, said  to  Him  :  Rabbi,  behold  the  fig-tree  which 
Thou  didst  curse  is  withered  away."  The  lesson  of 
His  divine  power  was  plainly  taught,  and  also  that  of 
the  worthlessness  of  a  life  of  observances  without 
fruit  of  inner  and  outer  fidelity  to  the  divine  rule  of 
love,  joined  to  the  living  root  of  all  justice,  which 
is  true  faith.  Our  Saviour  enforced  this  by  recur- 
ring to  His  oft-repeated  teaching  on  the  efficacy  of 
prayer. 

This  incident  of  the  barren  fig-tree,  and  the  brief 
discourse  which  it  was  made  to  illustrate,  were  for 
the  Apostles  alone,  and  we  have  joined  the  parts 
of  the  narrative  as  given  by  Matthew  and  Mark, 


JESUS  AND  THE  BARREN  FIG-TREE. 


557 


separated  by  a  day's  events  in  the  city.  It  is  all 
very  curious  :  the  looking  for  figs  to  eat  when  the 
time  of  their  ripening  had  not  come  ;  the  finding  a 
tree  all  covered  with  leaves,  yet  with  no  figs,  ripe  or 
unripe,  upon  it ;  the  cursing  of  it  for  a  barren  and  use- 
less mockery  of  a  fruit-tree,  typi- 
cal of  a  religion  of  words  and  signs 
and  empty  show ;  and  then  the  use 
of  the  miracle  of  the  tree's  quick 
death  to  show  the  efficacy  of  prayer, 
ending  with  His  never-forgotten  task 
of  urging  brotherly  love  and  for- 
giveness of  injuries — all  this  in  the 
two  early  mornings  on  the  way  from 
Bethany  to  the  Temple. 

It  was  not  so  easy  for  the  Apos- 
tles to  credit  their  own  super- 
natural gifts  at  this  time  as  it  had  been  in  the 
earlier  and  prouder  days  of  their  company  with 
Jesus.  But  He  insisted  on  the  Apostolic  virtue  of 
faith  as  the  force  which  should  make  them  masters 
over  every  power  of  earth  and  hell.  The  event  will 
justify  His  prediction.  The  preaching  of  the  Apostles 
will  wither  the  tree  of  Judaism  root  and  branch  ;  it 
will  lift  the  mountain  of  paganism  from  off  the  heart 
of  humanity.  Their  word  shall  be  mightier  than  the 
sword  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  shall  overcome  the 
yet  stronger  force  of  human  passion.  The  iaith  of 
Christ  shall  wither  the  tree  of  vice  and  make  that 
of  truth  fruitful  in  every  land  under  the  sun. 


And  Jesus  answering  saith  to  them : 
Have  the  faith  of  God.  Amen  I  say  to 
you,  if  you  have  faith  and  stagger  not,  not 
only  this  of  the  fig-tree  shall  you  do,  but 
whosoever  shall  say  to  this  mountain  :  Be 
thou  removed  and  be  cast  into  the  sea,  and 
shall  not  stagger  in  his  heart,  but  believe 
that  whatsoever  he  saith  shall  be  done,  il 
shall  be  done  for  him.  Therefore  I  say 
unto  you,  all  things  whatsoever  you  ask 
when  ye  pray,  believe  that  you  shall  re- 
ceive, and  they  shall  come  unto  you.  And 
when  you  shall  stand  to  pray,  forgive,  il 
you  have  aught  against  any  man,  that  youi 
Father  also  who  is  in  Heaven  may  forgive 
you  your  sins.  But  if  you  will  not  forgive, 
neither  will  your  Father  that  is  in  Heaven 
forgive  you  your  sins. 


S58  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER    XI. 

"  UNLESS  THE  GRAIN  OF  WHEAT  FALLING  INTO  THE 
GROUND  SHALL  DIE." — THE  VOICE  FROM  HEAVEN  : 
"THAT  YOU  MAY  BE  THE  CHILDREN  OF  LIGHT." 

John  xii.  20-36. 

ST.  JOHN  narrates  a  touching  instance  of  humility 
on  the  part  of  some  Gentiles,  most  probably  proselytes, 
and  therefore  entitled  to  enter  that  outer  court  of 
the  Temple  called  by  their  name.  These  had  come 
up  "  to  adore  on  the  festival-day,"  and  were  anxious 
to  speak  face  to  face  with  the  great  Prophet.  They 
knew  His  doctrine  of  universal  atonement,  and  would 
thank  Him,  we  may  suppose,  for  having  so  large  a 
heart  for  them.  But,  very  unlike  the  enemies  of  Jesus, 
who  crowded  up  to  shout  their  questions  at  Him, 
these  devout  men  timidly  sought  the  help  of  the  dis- 
ciples, and  spoke  to  Philip,  whose  former  dwelling- 
place  was  Bethsaida,  near  which  the  Gentile  traders 
passed  and  repassed  the  whole  year  long ;  perhaps 
they  had  known  Philip  there. 

It  may  be  that  the  incident  occurred  on  the  way 
from  Bethany  that  morning  :  They  said  to  Philip : 
"  Sir,  we  would  see  Jesus."  But  in  these  latter 
days  the  Master's  power  had  taken  on  a  more  majestic 
mien:  "Philip  cometh  and  telleth  Andrew.  Again 
Andrew  and  Philip  told  Jesus."  His  answer  was  a 
discourse  upon  the  glory  of  His  death.  It  was  doubt- 
less an  anticipation  of  the  questions  these  Gentiles 
would  put  to  Him.  Seldom  have  even  the  words  of 
Jesus  expressed  so  terrible  a  doctrine  or  risen  to  so 
high  an  eloquence,  as  when  He  here  proclaimed  the 
mystery  of  life  springing  from  its  own  death.  He 
used,  as  was  His  wont,  an  illustration  from  nature, 


THE  VOICE  FROM  HEA  VEN. 


559 


whose   mystery  of  life  is  also  wrapped   in   the  decay 
of  death. 

And  as  if  this  absorbing  topic  had  led  Jesus  into 
forgetfulness  of  the  surrounding  group  and  the  multi- 
tude awaiting  Him  about  the  Temple,  He  began  to 
think  aloud:  "Now  is  My  soul  troubled.  And  what 
shall  I  say  ?  Father,  save  Me  from  this  hour?  "  The 
contemplation  of  His  death  aroused 
violent  emotions  in  the  soul  of  Jesus. 
His  human  nature  snatched  a  mo- 
mentary sway,  and  He  cried  out  to 
Heaven  for  pity.  We  shall  see  the 
same  thing  happen  again  the  night 
before  Calvary.  This  is  the  first 
sigh  of  His  agony.  But  the  Sav- 
iour's high  purpose  of  suffering  for 
us  soon  regains  the  mastery.  He 
recalls  His  choice  long  since  made, 
and  the  covenant  with  His  Father : 
' '  But  for  this  cause  I  came  unto 
this  hour.  Father,  glorify  Thy 
name." 

These  last  words  pierced  the 
skies.  We  have  said  that  the  Mas- 
ter was  thinking  aloud ;  and  now  the 
Father's  secret  communication  with  His  Holy  One 
suddenly  becomes  public  :  "A  voice  therefore  came 
from  Heaven,"  whose  echoes  reverberated  through  the 
colonnades  of  the  Temple,  so  that  the  crowd  to  its 
outer  edge  were  startled  as  if  with  thunder;  but 
those  near  at  hand  heard  its  tones  of  more  than 
angelic  music.  "  I  have  both  glorified  it,"  said  the 
voice,  "and  will  glorify  it  again.  The  multitude 
therefore  that  stood  and  heard,  said  that  it  thundered. 
Others  said:  An  angel  spoke  to  Him." 


But  Jesus  answered  them,  saying  :  The 
hour  is  come,  that  the  Son  of  Man  shall  be 
glorified.  Amen,  Amen  I  say  to  you,  un- 
less the  grain  of  wheat,  falling  into  the 
ground,  die,  itself  remaineth  alone.  But  if 
it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit.  He 
that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it  ;  and  he 
that  hateth  his  life  in  this  world,  keepeth 
it  unto  life  eternal.  If  any  man  minister  to 
me,  let  him  follow  me  ;  and  where  I  am, 
there  also  shall  my  minister  be.  If  any 
man  minister  to  me,  him  will  my  Father 
honor.  Now  is  my  soul  troubled.  And  what 
shall  I  say  ?  Father,  save  me  from  this 
hour  ?  But  for  this  cause  I  came  unto  this 
hour.  Father,  glorify  thy  name.  A  voice 
therefore  came  from  heaven  :  I  have  both 
glorified  it,  and  will  glorify  it  again.  The 
multitude  therefore  that  stood  and  heard, 
said  that  it  thundered.  Others  said :  An 
angel  spoke  to  him.  Jesus  answered  : 
This  voice  came  not  because  of  me,  but  for 
your  sakes.  Now  is  the  judgment  of  the 
world  ;  now  shall  the  prince  of  this  world 
be  cast  out.  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up 
from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  things  to 
myself.  (Now  this  he  said,  signifying  what 
death  he  should  die.) 


560  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Jesus  explained  that  it  presaged  His  death  ;  not 
indeed  to  Himself  personally,  upon  whom  the  dark 
shadow  always  rested,  but  to  them  ;  that  they,  know- 
ing He  conversed  with  God,  might  not  lose  faith  in 
Him  when  He  should  be  raised  upon  the  gibbet,  the 
scorn  of  His  enemies.  Were  it  upon  a  gibbet  or  a 
throne,  they  could  but  lift  Him  up  for  the  worship 
of  all  mankind.  "  Jesus  answered:  This  voice  came 
not  because  of  Me,  but  for  your  sakes.  Now  is  the 
judgment  of  the  world;  now  shall  the  prince  of 
this  world  be  cast  out.  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from 
the  earth,  will  draw  all  things  to  Myself.  (Now  this 
He  said,  signifying  what  death  He  should  die)." 
The  honest  Greeks  who  had  elicited  all  this  now  knew 
that  all  races,  all  men,  "all  things"  were  to  be 
gathered  to  the  Christ  and  to  God,  when  He  should 
be  " lifted  up." 

He  knew  that  His  disciples  were  familiar  with  this 
mystery  of  the  Son  of  Man's  death,  however  dimly  they 
understood  it,  and  would  question  Him  no  more  about 
it ;  but  He  was  not  surprised  that  others  should  wish 
an  explanation.  "The  multitude  answered  Him," 
says  St.  John,  "  we  have  heard  out  of  the  law  that 
Christ  abideth  for  ever,  and  how  sayest  Thou,  the 
Son  of  Man  must  be  lifted  up  ?  Who  is  this  Son  of 
Man."  Strangers  alone  could  be  thus  unfamiliar  with 
His  often- repeated  title,  Son  of  Man.  What  should 
He  say  to  them  ?  Neither  time  nor  occasion  served 
Him  to  instruct  them  fully  in  His  Messiasship,  His 
two  natures,  God  and  Man.  They  were  willing 
hearts,  however,  and  so  He  bade  them  cling  to  Him 
by  mere  obedience.  They  knew  He  had  the  truth  of 
God  and  the  authority  of  God.  Follow  the  light,  is 
His  exhortation,  and  it  will  finally  dispel  all  your 
darkness.  After  saying  this  He  found  means  to  get 


THE  TEMPLE  AGAIN  PURG£L.  561 

away  out  of  their  reach,  and  to  rest  and  be  quiet : 
"  Jesus  therefore  said  to  them  :  Yet  a  little  while  the 
light  is  among  you.  Walk  whilst  you  have  the  light, 
that  the  darkness  overtake  you  not ;  and  he  that 
walketh  in  darkness  knoweth  not  whither  he  goeth. 
Whilst  you  have  the  light  believe  in  the  light,  that 
you  may  be  the  children  of  light.  These  things  Jesus 
spoke,  and  He  went  away  and  hid  Himself  from  them." 
How  noble  a  title  is  this — Children  of  Light ! 
They  who  rightly  bear  it,  know  that  in  the  voyage 
of  which  Jesus  is  the  pilot,  it  is  by  alternate  light 
and  darkness  that  one  is  best  guided ;  as  on  a  dark- 
some coast  the  mariner  is  served  by  light-houses  whose 
lamp  is  better  seen  because  it  does  not  shed  a  steady 
glow  but  flashes  out  suddenly  after  intervals  of  gloom. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  TEMPLE  AGAIN  PURGED  OF  BUYERS  AND  SEU,ERS. 
— "BY  WHAT  AUTHORITY  DOST  THOU  THESE  THINGS  ?  " 
Matt.  xxi.  12,  13,  and  23-27  ;  Mark  xi.  15-17,  and 
27-33  ;  Luke  xix.  45,  46,  and  xx.  1-8. 

S  a  poisonous  plant  creeps  upon  a  state- 
ly tree  and  gradually  enwraps  it  and 
sucks  up  its  life,  so  love  of  money  in- 
sinuates itself  into  the  service  of  God, 
even  into  the  highest  functions  of  reli- 
gion, and  under  forms  of  law  and  as 
vested  rights  the  hateful  vice  of  avarice 
is  protected  by  the  sacredness  of  the  al- 
tar. At  last  it  comes  to  this,  that  to 
tear  away  the  parasite  is  to  endanger 
the  tree ;  to  reform  religious  abuses 
(nearly  always  footed  in'  money- getting)  is  to  run 
the  risk  of  stopping  the  work  of  religion  altogether. 


562  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Men  often  defend  abuses  by  asserting  that  "  under  the 
circumstances  ' '  they  are  indispensable  to  the  worship 
of  God. 

This  we  say  on  account  of  our  L,ord's  being  again 
forced  to  cleanse  the  Temple  of  its  traffickers.  Of 
course  they  were  the  lessees  of  the  false-hearted 
priests ;  they  had  rented  and  paid  for  their  stands ; 
they  had  "  rights,"  and  they  had  "long-established 
custom  "  ;  they  had  "  lawful  authority  "  to  back  them  : 
all  this  they  had,  and  all  this  was  only  an  aggravation 
of  their  sin.  A  bad  excuse  lends  a  deeper  tinge  of 
guilt  to  an  offence.  A  wicked  deed  cannot  be  patched 
and  mended  ;  it  must  be  totally  ended. 

Jesus  had  not  a  moment's  hesitation.  Rights  to 
trade  in  the  holy  place  there  were  none,  nor  could 
custom  or  authority  make  common  traffic  lawful  in  the 
house  of  prayer.  He  was  especially  indignant  for  two 
reasons :  one  was  because  this  barter  profaned  the 
Gentiles'  Court,  for  He  loved  the  nations  of  the  world 
and  was  sensitive  to  their  rights  in  the  Temple.  This 
is  seen  by  His  quotation  from  Isaias  (Ivi.  7).  An- 
other reason  was  that  He  had  expelled  these  tra- 
ders once  before  and  they  had  returned  again. 

"And  when  He  was  entered  into  the  Temple," 
says  St.  Mark,  "He  began  to  cast  out  them  that 
sold  and  bought  in  the  Temple,  and  overthrew  the 
tables  of  the  money-changers  and  the  chairs  of  them 
that  sold  doves.  And  He  suffered  not  that  any  man 
should  carry  a  vessel  through  the  Temple.  And  He 
taught,  saying  to  them  :  Is  it  not  written,  My  house 
shall  be  called  the  house  of  prayer  to  all  nations  ?  but 
you  have  made  it  a  den  of  thieves." 

This  was  especially  exasperating  to  the  leaders  of 
the  conspiracy.  Not  only  did  He  destroy  a  lucrative 
' '  business ' '  in  which  they  were  secret  partners,  but 


"BY  WHAT  AUTHORITY?"  563 

"He  was  teaching  daily  in  the  Temple."  His  com- 
manding figure  shed  authority  from  its  every  motion, 
His  voice  and  not  theirs  was  the  trumpet  of  Israel, 
and  they  felt  that  they  were  superseded.  "  Hosanna 
to  the  Son  of  David  !  ' '  was  the  salutation  of  the  people 
to  this  new  man,  this  obscure  country  Rabbi.  "  The 
chief  priests  and  the  scribes  and  the  rulers  of  the 
people,"  having  considered  all  this,  renewed  their 
deadly  purpose,  and  "they  sought  how  they  might 
destroy  Him  :  for  they  feared  Him  because  the  whole 
multitude  was  in  admiration  at  His  doctrine,  and  they 
found  not  what  to  do  to  Him,  for  all  the  people  were 
very  attentive  to  hear  Him." 

It  looked  to  the  public  eye  as  if  He  were  about  to 
establish  Himself  permanently  in  the  Temple.  Kvery 
night  He  went  away  to  Bethany,  but  only  to  reappear 
every  morning  in  the  holy  place.  His  enemies  saw 
that  they  must  take  decisive  steps  to  ruin  and  end 
Him,  and  snatch  from  the  people  the  new  life  which 
God  had  sent  them.  Meanwhile  they  tormented  Him 
as  best  they  might  with  questions,  to  extort  incrimi- 
nating admissions.  The  morning  after  He  had  purged 
the  Temple,  and  when  He  had  come  into  the  city  and 
begun  * '  teaching  the  people  in  the  Temple  and 
preaching  the  Gospel,  the  chief  priests  and  the  scribes 
with  the  ancients  met  together  and  spoke  to  Him,  say- 
ing :  Tell  us  by  what  authority  dost  Thou  these 
things,  or  who  is  he  that  hath  given  Thee  this  author- 
ity ?"  If  He  had  crept  to  their  feet  and  asked  their 
favor,  He  might  have  got  it ;  right  or  wrong,  if  He 
would  serve  their  political  purposes,  He  might  have 
gained  their  tolerance,  just  as  the  money-changers 
had  obtained  it  for  helping  their  pecuniary  interests. 
But  the  Messias  was  against  them  for  their  sins,  for 
their  impenitence,  their  hypocrisy,  their  venality, 


564  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CfJKTST. 

their    use  of   their    office    for    personal   ambition  and 
greed. 

And  now  they  would  draw  Him  into  a  snare  of 
words.  "  By  what  authority  dost  Thou  these 
things?"  Instantly  He  referred  them  to  His  great 
forerunner  and  divinely  chosen  authentic,  John  the 
Baptist.  He  was  a  prophet  by  appointment  of  God,  by 
miraculous  birth,  by  a  stupendous  miracle  of  per- 
suasiveness unto  repentance,  acknowledged  as  a 
prophet  by  all.  John's  word  was  true  if  there  was 
truth  in  Israel.  He  was  witness  for  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth. Other  authority  Jesus  had  in  abundance  :  the 
healing  of  the  sick,  the  cleansing  of  lepers,  the  release 
of  demoniacs  ;  and  Lazarus  was  there,  the  third  dead 
man  that  He  had  recalled  to  life.  What  an  honest 
Jewish  scribe  wanted  and  had  a  right  to  have  was 
the  law's  authentic,  a  prophet's  witness.  Would  these 
scribes  admit  the  testimony  of  John  ?  If  yes,  the  case 
was  closed  in  Jesus'  favor.  If  no,  they  were  false 
to  their  vocation  in  Israel;  they  would  not  accept  a 
prophet.  "I  also  will  ask  you,"  said  Jesus,  "one 
word,  which  if  you  shall  tell  Me,  I  will  also  tell  you 
by  what  authority  I  do  these  things.  The  baptism  of 
John,  whence  was  it  ?  from  Heaven  or  from  men  ? 
But  they  thought  within  themselves  saying :  If  we 
shall  say  from  Heaven,  He  will  say  to  us  :  Why  then 
did  you  not  believe  him  ?  But  if  we  shall  say  from 
men,  we  are  afraid  of  the  multitude,  for  all  held  John 
as  a  prophet.  And  answering  Jesus,  they  said :  We 
know  not.  He  also  said  to  them :  Neither  do  I  tell 
you  by  what  authority  I  do  these  things." 


PARABLE  OF  THE  TWO  SONS. 


565 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE  PARABLE   OF  THE  TWO  SONS. 
Matt.  xx.  28-32. 

WHENEVER  Jesus  began  to  speak  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist He  seemed  to  linger  lovingly  upon  the  theme. 
On  this  occasion  He  drew  yet  another  lesson  from  His 
Precursor's  mission.  He  insisted  upon  his  call  to 
penance  as  the  voice  of  God. 

Smooth  clerical  politicians  had 
gone  to  John  to  test  him  and  to  use 
him,  and  in  that  spirit  had  been 
baptized  by  him,  professing  a  repen- 
tance they  did  not  feel.  "  Ye  brood 
of  vipers,"  was  what  he  called  them. 
They  have  their  successors  in  all 
orders  of  Christians,  men  and  wo- 
men, in  high  places  and  in  low, 
who  say  ' '  I  will ' '  to  the  call  of 
God,  and  yet  go  their  ways,  devious 
ways,  after  personal  or  party  gain, 
and  the  office  and  the  honors 


But  what  think  you  ?  A  certain  man 
had  two  sons,  and  coming  to  the  first  he 
said :  Son,  go  work  to-day  in  my  vine- 
yard. And  he  answering  said  :  I  will  not. 
But  afterwards,  being  moved  wi  h  repen- 
tance, he  went.  And  coming  to  the  other, 
he  said  in  like  manner.  And  he  answer- 
ing said :  I  go,  sir,  and  he  went  not. 
Which  of  the  two  did  the  father's  will  ? 
They  say  to  him:  The  first.  Jesus  saith 
to  them  :  Amen  I  say  to  yo  ',  that  the  pub- 
licans and  the  harlots  shall  go  into  the 
Kingdom  of  God  before  you.  For  John 
came  to  you  in  the  way  of  justice,  and 
you  did  not  believe  him  ;  but  the  publicans 
and  the  harlots  believed  him.  But  you 
seeing  it,  did  not  even  afterwards  repent, 
that  you  might  believe  him. 


Using  the  name 
they  bear  for  ends 
selfish  and  often  deeply  corrupt,  such  men,  from  the 
Baptist's  time  till  now,  are  an  offence  in  the  sight 
of  God  and  man,  far  more  loathsome  than  open  sinners 
who,  at  any  rate,  would  not  hide  their  vice  with  a 
cloak  of  religion.  The  brutal  sinner  is  less  offensive 
than  the  clever  one.  The  repentance  of  a  shameless 
reprobate  is  a  glory  to  God  and  a  joy  to  the  an- 
gels ;  and  our  Saviour  holds  it  up  as  a  pattern  to 
those  who  hope  to  be  saved  while  dexterously 
balancing  an  inward  vileness  with  external  pro- 
priety. 


566 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST, 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE;  PARABLES  OF  THE   WICKED  HUSBANDMEN,  AND 
OF  THE  KING'S  SUPPER. 

Matt.  xxi.    33—46,    xxii     1-14. ;   Mark    xii.    1-12  ; 
Luke  xx.  9-19. 

JESUS  now  drove  His  lessons  home  by  two  parables. 
The  meaning  of  the  parable  of  the  husbandmen  was 
unmistakable  :  the  perfidy  of  the  leaders  of  the  Jewish 
race  in  all  its  history,  their  slaughter  of  the  prophets 
and  their  thirst  for  the  blood  of  the  Messias.  Our 
Saviour's  hearers  felt  the  home-thrust:  "  Which  they 
hearing  said  to  Him  :  God  forbid.  But  He  looking  on 
them,  said:  Have  you  never  read  in  the  Scriptures: 
The  stone  which  the  builders  rejected, 
the  same  is  become  the  head  of  the 
corner.  By  the  Lord  this  has  been 
done,  and  it  is  wonderful  in  our  eyes. 
Therefore  I  say  to  you,  the  King- 
dom of  God  shall  be  taken  from  you 
and  shall  be  given  to  a  nation 
yielding  the  fruits  thereof.  And 
whosoever  shall  fall  on  this  stone 
shall  be  broken  ;  but  on  whomso- 
ever it  shall  fall,  it  shall  grind  him 
to  powder." 

The  parable  and  its  application 
form  one  of  the  most  pointed  of  our 
Saviour's  many  arraignirents  of 
official  Judaism.  History  offers  no 
parallel  to  the  strange  infatuation 
of  the  race,  from  the  time  when  in 
their  wheat  fields  and  pastures  the 
sons  of-  Israel  sold  their  brother 


'1  nere  was  a  man  a.i  householder,  who 
planted  a  vineyard  and  made  a  hedge 
round  about  it,  and  dug  in  it  a  press,  and 
built  a  tower,  and  let  it  out  to  husband- 
men, and  went  inio  a  strange  country. 
And  when  the  time  of  the  fruits  drew  nigh, 
he  sent  to  the  husbandmen  a  servant,  to 
receive  of  the  husbandmen  of  the  fruit  of 
the  vineyard.  Who  having  laid  hands  on 
him,  beat  him  and  se..t  him  away  empty. 
And  again  he  sent  to  them  another  ser- 
vant, and  him  they  wounded  in  the  head 
and  used  him  reproachfully.  And  again 
he  sent  another,  and  him  they  killed,  and 
many  others,  of  whom  some  they  beat,  and 
others  they  killed.  Then  the  lord  of  the 
vineyard  said  :  What  shall  1  do  ?  Having 
therefore  yet  one  son  most  dear  to  him, 
he  also  sent  him  unto  them  last  of  all, 
saying :  I  will  send  my  beloved  son  ;  it 
may  be,  when  they  see  him,  they  will 
reverence  him.  Whom  when  the  husband- 
men saw,  they  thought  within  themselves, 
[and]  said  one  to  another  :  This  is  the 
heir  ;  come,  let  us  kill  him,  and  we  shall 
have  his  inheritance.  And  taking  him, 
they  cast  him  forth  out  of  the  vineyard  and 
killed  him.  When  therefore  the  Lord  of 
the  vineyard  shall  come,  what  shall  he  do 
to  these  husbandmen  ?  He  will  come  and 
will  destroy  those  husbandmen,  and  wiii 
give  the  vineyard  to  others. 


THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN. 


567 


Joseph  to  the  Madianite  caravan,  down  to  the  time 
when  they  will  force  upon  Pilate  the  murder  of 
their  King,  bought  by  them  from  the  traitor  Judas 
for  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  They  were  now  a  doom- 
ed race.  Their  nation,  after  giving  its  truest  mem- 
bers to  the  Redeemer's  Church,  should  be  scattered 
abroad  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  They  will  bear, 
indeed,  the  law  of  Moses  with  them,  but  emptied  of 
its  promises.  The  Jewish  race  will  bear  about  with 
it  the  law  of  Moses  as  a  stigma  of  shame  ;  it  is  as  if 
a  murderer  were  condemned,  in  lieu  of  the  death 
penalty,  to  wear  for  ever  the  blood-stained  clothes  of 
his  victim  and  even  to  be  called  by  his -name.  And 
the  religion  of  the  Jews,  perfected  beyond  all  the 
dreams  of  their  prophets,  be- 
comes the  heritage  of  the  hated 
Gentiles. 

All  this  was  taught  by  Jesus 
in  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem, 
His  glances  sweeping  outwards 
away  beyond  the  crowd  stunned 
by  His  words,  and  taking  in 
the  many  millions  of  the  con- 
temporary and  the  future  races 
of  mankind.  He  had  fixed 
His  hearers'  minds  upon  their 
own  race,  for  in  the  Hebrew 
prophets  Israel  was  called  the 
vineyard  of  the  Lord  ;  and  as 
He  went  on  and  told  of  their 
oft-repeated  rejection  of  Jeho- 
vah's messengers,  and  by  pain- 
ful repetition  had  shown  through  the  thin  veil  of  His 
parable  the  cruel  and  brutal  murder  of  the  prophets, 
and  even  when  not  murdered,  their  rejection  by  the 


A  VINEYARD  IN  THE  EAST. 


568 


LIFE  OF  yESUS  CHRIST. 


"  Sent  his  servants  to  call 
them  that  were  invited." 


people  and  priesthood  ;  when  at  last 
He  came  to  the  direful  climax,  the 
coming  of  God's  Son  to  them,  the 
Only-Begotten  of  the  Father,  and 
the  result  of  it — their  murmurs, 
their  proud  suspicions,  their  insist- 
ing on  their  own  terms,  their  secret 
plotting,  their  awful  resolve  to  kill 
Him ;  when  He  had  reached  this 
fulness  of  their  guilt,  the  better- 
minded  caught  their  breath  and 
cried  out :  ' '  God  forbid  !  "  in  a  tor- 
ment of  shame  and  foreboding.  But 
Jesus  stood  to  the  facts.  He  read 
the  truth  in  the  hearts  of  many  pre- 
sent before  Him  ;  already  He  felt 
the  iron  of  their  deadly  words  to 
Pilate,  "Crucify  Him!"  sinking 
into  His  soul.  "  The  Kingdom  of 
God,"  He  insisted,  "shall  be  taken 
from  you." 

The  chief  priests  had  their  emis- 
saries present,  and  they  knew  that 
He  spoke  all  these  things  of  themselves.  Their  fin- 
gers itched  for  His  throat,  but  they  were  too  cunning, 
too  cautious  to  brave  the  multitude  by  seizing 
Him  ;  other  men  were  no  less  edified  than  they 
themselves  were  appalled  by  the  daring  Rabbi 
of  Nazareth,  as  He  closed  the  long  line  of  the 
prophets  of  Israel  by  His  word-pictures  of  Israel's 
guilt  and  ruin.  So  the  conspirators  bided  their 
time.  And  then  Jesus  gave  His  audience  an- 
other parable,  one  that  His  nearest  followers  had 
heard  before. 

It  exhibited   the  Hebrew  race   as  the   invited 


And  Jesus  answering,  spoke  again  in 
parables  to  them,  saying :  The  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  is  likened  to  a  king,  who  made 
a  marriage  for  his  son.  And  he  sent  his 
servants  to  call  them  that  were  invited 
to  the  marriage,  and  they  would  not 
come.  Again  he  sent  other  servants,  say- 
ing :  Tell  them  that  were  invited,  behold  I 
have  prepared  my  dinner;  my  beeves  and 
fatlings  are  killed,  and  all  things  are 
ready ;  come  ye  to  the  marriage.  But  they 
neglected  and  went  their  ways,  one  to  his 
farm,  and  another  to  his  merchandise. 
And  the  rest  laid  hands  on  his  servants, 
and  having  treated  them  contumeliously, 
put  them  to  death.  But  when  the  king 
heard  of  it,  he  was  angry,  and  sending 
his  armies  he  destroyed  those  murderers 
and  burnt  their  city.  Then  saith  he  to 
his  servants  :  The  marriage  indeed  is  ready, 
but  they  that  were  invited  were  not  worthy. 
Go  ye  therefore  into  the  highways,  and 
as  many  as  you  shall  find,  call  them  to  the 
marriage.  And  his  servants  going  forth 
into  the  ways,  gathered  together  all  that 
they  found,  both  bad  and  good,  and  the 
marriage  was  filled  with  guests.  And  the 
king  went  in  to  see  the  guests,  and  he  saw 
there  a  man  who  had  not  on  a  wedding 
garment.  And  he  saith  to  him  :  Friend, 
how  earnest  thou  in  hither,  not  having  on 
a  wedding  garment  ?  But  he  was  silent. 
Then  the  king  said  to  the  waiters  :  Bind 
his  hands  and  feet,  and  cast  him  into  the 
exterior  darkness  ;  there  shall  be  weeping 
and  gnashing  of  teeth.  For  many  are 
called,  but  few  chosen. 


THE  RELA  T1ON  OF  CHURCH  AND  STATE. 


569 


guests  of  the  Lord's  wedding  feast ;  told  of  many  of 
them  scorning  the  honor ;  of  their  places  being  taken 
by  the  general  mass  of  mankind,  and  these  in  turn 
winnowed  of  the  personally  unworthy,  till  the  banquet 
is  filled  with  the  King's  faithful  friends. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

THE   RELATION   OF   CHURCH   AND   STATE. 

Matt.  xxii.  15-22  ;  Mark  xii.  13-17  ;  Luke  xx.  20-26. 

THE  Pharisees  were  notoriously  of  the  national 
party,  as  the  Herodians  were  of  the  Roman  party,  and 
the  two  factions  were  at  deadly  feud  with  each  other. 
Yet  both  hated  Jesus  intensely. 
Hence  their  ill-sorted  alliance  in 
putting  Him  to  public  question  on 
the  perilous  subject  of  Caesar's  au- 
thority. Though  the  Pharisees  rated 
the  Herodians  as  traitors  to  both 
religion  and  fatherland,  and  the 
Herodians  were  the  home  guards 
of  the  Roman  garrison,  yet  they 
were  ready  to  unite  against  Jesus. 
Evil  has  many  varieties,  but  all  of 
them  make  men  equally  enemies  of 
the  Son  of  God. 

Both  parties  were  well  trained 
in  hypocrisy,  and  they  baited  their 
snare  to  entrap  the  Saviour  in  His 
speech,  with  a  pretence  of  admira- 
tion for  His  manly  qualities.  "  Mas- 
ter, we  know  that  Thou  speakest  and  teachest  rightly, 
and  carest  not  for  any  man,  for  Thou  regardest  not  the 
person  of  men,  but  teachest  the  way  of  God  in  truth. 


Then  the  Pharisees  going,  consulted 
among  themselves  how  to  ensnare  him  in 
his  speech.  And  they  sent  to  him  their 
disciples  with  the  Herodians,  spies  who 
should  feign  themselves  just,  that  they 
might  take  hold  of  him  in  his  words,  that 
they  might  dv.  liver  him  up  to  the  authority 
and  power  of  the  governor.  And  they 
asked  him,  saying  ;  Master,  we  know  that 
thou  speakest  and  teachest  rightly,  and 
carest  not  for  any  man,  for  thou  regardest 
not  the  person  of  men,  but  teachest  the 
way  of  God  in  truth.  Tell  us  therefore 
what  dost  thou  think  ?  Is  it  lawful  for 
us  to  give  tribute  to  Caesar  or  not  ?  But 
Jesus,  knowing  their  wickedness,  said :  Why 
do  you  tempt  me,  ye  hypocrites  ?  Show 
me  the  coin  of  the  tribute ;  and  they 
offered  him  a  penny.  And  Jesus  saith  to 
them  :  Whose  image  and  inscription  is 
this  ?  They  say  to  him :  Caesar's.  Then 
he  saith  to  them  :  Render  therefore  to 
Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  and 
to  God  the  things  that  are  God's.  And 
they  could  not  reprehend  his  word  before 
the  people,  and  wondering  at  his  answer 
they  held  their  peace,  and  leaving  him, 
went  their  ways. 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Tell  us  therefore  what  dost  Thou  think?  Is 
it  lawful  for  us  to  give  tribute  to  Caesar  or 
not?" 

Their  purpose  was  to  wreck  the  Messias 
upon  the  rock  of  the  Roman  Empire.  To  em- 
broil the  representatives  of  religion  with  the 
civil  authority  is  now,  as  it  was  then,  the  aim 
of  wicked  and  ambitious  schemers ;  it  will  al- 
ways be  so.  If  Christ  shall  say,  "  Pay  the 
tribute,"  then  He  is  a  traitor  to  His  theocratic 
nation;  if  He  shall  say,  "Do  not  pay  the 
tribute,"  He  is  a  rebel  against  Rome.  In 
either  case  He  is  ruined.  The  Master  was 
not  to  be  entrapped  ;  nor  would  He  hurt  His 
frankness  by  an  evasion.  What  they  had  hypo- 
critically said  of  His  fearless  truth-telling  was 
entirely  correct,  and  His  answer  proved  it, 
though  it  baffled  them.  He  taught  first  that 

\  -^y —  '  Caesar  had  just  authority,  for  as  a  matter  of 

Y~  *•  fact  his  rule  preserved  order,  and  so  far  at  least 

«To  God  the  things  that  are  was  entitled  to  the  tribute  ;  yet  He  taught  that 
the  Roman  authority  was  not  unlimited,  for 
God's  majesty  is  above  all,  and  this  stood  for 
religion,  for  equity  between  man  and  man,  for 
peaceful  and  just  administration  of  the  laws. 
Furthermore,  a  plain  inference  from  the  an- 
swer of  Jesus  was  that  in  purely  mundane  af- 
fairs the  State  is  not  subject  to  the  Church, 
each  being  independent  in  its  own  sphere. 

The  Messias  had  previously  taught  that 
He  had  not  been  set  over  men  to  settle  dis- 
putes about  a  family  inheritance,  a  matter 
which  belonged  to  the  civil  tribunals ;  and  now 
He  taught  that  neither  He  nor  His  Church 
could  be  forced  to  decide  between  rival 


God's." 


••They  offered  Him  a 


"NEITHER  MARRY  NOR  BE  MARRIED."  571 

claimants  for  secular  princedom.  L,et  men  and  nations 
adhere  openly  to  His  religion,  let  them  be  submis- 
sive to  His  religious  and  moral  influence  and  to  that 
of  His  Church  after  Him,  and  they  shall  be  able  to 
form  civil  codes,  establish  civil  tribunals  and  minister 
to  the  temporal  welfare  of  the  people,  guided  by 
wisdom  from  above — but  in  such  affairs  they  were 
not  immediately  subject  to  the  Church's  authority. 
Referring,  therefore,  the  case  offered  Him  to  its  proper 
sphere,  that  of  the  private  and  public  conscience  of 
men  in  secular  matters,  Jesus,  first  unveiling  the 
deceit  of  His  questioners,  made  His  far-famed  answer. 
It  is  a  brief  summary  of  all  the  learning  on  the 
delicate  subject  of  the  relation  of  Church  and  State : 
*  *  He  saith  to  them  :  Render  therefore  to  Caesar  the 
things  that  are  Caesar's,  and  to  God  the  things,  that 
are  God's. " 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

"THEY  SHALL    NEITHER    MARRY    NOR   BE    MARRIED.'* 

Matt.  xxii.  23-33  ;  Mark  xii.  18-27 ;  Luke  xx.  27-4.0. 

THE  Sadducees  were  the  agnostics  of  that  era, 
unbelievers  in  immortality,  especially  the  resurrection 
of  the  body.  Yet  some  of  them,  as  we  have  seen, 
were  high  in  office,  both  Annas  and  Caiaphas  being  of 
that  sect.  The  Sanhedrin,  however,  was  made  up 
almost  entirely  of  Pharisees,  stiff  adherents  of  ortho- 
doxy, and  as  stiff  tyrants  over  consciences  by  means 
of  their  rabbinical  observances.  The  Sadducees  hated 
Jesus  from  political  motives  mainly,  for  they  were 
tools  of  the  Roman  governor  and  satellites  of  the 
Herods,  enemies  of  religious  movement  and  change 
of  all  kinds.  The  hatred  of  the  Pharisees  likewise 


572  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

had  its  origin  in  politics,  though  of  a  sort  directly 
opposite  to  those  of  the  Sadducees,  for  the  Pharisees 
were  set  upon  revolution.  They  found  Jesus  at  once 
peaceful  in  His  aims  and  all  powerful  with  the  pec- 
ple.  The  two  sects  could  work  together  for  this  one 
end :  to  destroy  the  Prophet  of  Nazareth.  On  all 
other  points  they  were  at  daggers  drawn  with  each 
other.  In  their  enmity  to  Jesus  they  often  acted 
in  concert,  but  sometimes  separately.  Immediately 
after  the  defeat  the  Pharisees  had  suffered  over  the 
question  of  the  .tribute,  their  ill-sorted  allies,  the 
Sadducees,  tried  their  chance  with  a  difficulty  which 
no  doubt  had  served  them  to  confuse  the  Pharisees : 
"  And  there  came  to  Him  that  day  the  Sadducees, 
who  say  there  is  no  resurrection,  and  they  asked 
Him  saying  :  Master,  Moses  wrote  unto  us  that  if 
any  man's  brother  die  and  leave  his  wife  behind 
him,  and  leave  no  children,  his  brother  shall  take 
his  wife  and  raise  up  seed  to  his  brother.  Now 
there  were  seven  brethren,  and  the  first  took  a  wife, 
and  died  leaving  no  issue.  And  the  second  took  her, 
and  died,  and  neither  did  he  leave  any  issue.  And 
the  third  in  like  manner.  And  the  seven  all  took 
her  in  like  manner  and  did  not  leave  issue.  Last  of 
all  the  woman  died.  In  the  resurrection  therefore, 
when  they  shall  rise  again,  whose  wife  shall  she  be 
of  them?  for  the  seven  had  her  to  wife." 

Such  was  the  argument  against  man's  immortality, 
a  gross  extension  of  bodily  relations  into  a  spiritual 
condition  in  order  to  prove  the  doctrine  of  a  future 
life  an  absurdity.  They  would  not  believe  what 
they  could  not  understand ;  they  revolted  against 
mysteries.  Yet  nothing  can  be  more  unreasonable 
than  such  an  attitude  of  mind.  Is  there  no  knowl- 
edge except  full  knowledge?  And,  furthermore,  if 


"NEITHER  MARRY  NOR  BE  MARRIED:'  573 

God  be  all  powerful,  does  it  not  follow  that  His  work 
shall  be  hard  to  understand,  since  many  an  intelli- 
gent man  cannot  understand  even  a  great  poet,  or 
the  intricacies  of  a  problem  in  mathematics.  The 
Sadducees  belonged  to  the  class  who  will  worship  a 
man  because  he  is  great  beyond  their  comprehen- 
sion, and  yet  they  exact  of  the  great  God  that  His 
works  shall  be  brought  down  to  their  level,  even  in 
reference  to  the  mysterious  life  of  disembodied  spirits. 
Sensual  men  they  were  in  their  tastes  and  conduct, 
and  cynics  and  sceptics  in  their  frame  of  mind,  trim- 
mers in  their  politics,  content,  as  to  religion,  with 
the  bark  of  the  Mosaic  tree,  its  civil  advantages,  its 
racial  privileges.  Hence  their  choice  of  this  puzzling 
question,  and  hence  their  flippant  style  of  wording 
it.  Nothing  hurts  a  sensualist  so  much  as  the  affirma- 
tion of  human  dignity,  and  the  worthiness  of  man  for 
a  high  destiny.  With  the  Sadducees  the  sensual  en- 
joyment of  women's  company  was  ever  in  their 
thoughts  as  the  chief  happiness  of  life,  whether  here 
or  hereafter ;  an  Oriental  trait  religiously  perpetu- 
ated in  the  joys,  earthly  and  heavenly,  of  the  un- 
clean sect  of  Mahomet. 

The  answer  of  Jesus  was  a  bright  ray  from  the 
celestial  life,  telling  of  the  freedom  of  the  saints  in 
Heaven  from  sexual  trammels.  Both  Scripture  and 
unaided  reason  might  teach  them  that  in  that  blissful 
state  there  was  no  need  of  marriage  to  propagate  a 
race  of  immortals :  "Do  ye  not  therefore  err  because 
you  know  not  the  Scriptures  nor  the  power  of  God  ? 
For  when  they  shall  rise  again  from  the  dead,  they 
shall  neither  marry,  nor  be  married,  but  are  as  the 
angels  in  Heaven.  The  children  of  this  world  marry 
and  are  given  in  marriage,  but  they  that  shall  be 
accounted  worthy  of  that  world,  and  of  the  resurrec- 


574  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

tion  from  the  dead,  shall  neither  be  married  nor  take 
wives.  Neither  can  they  die  any  more,  for  they  are 
equal  to  the  angels,  and  are  the  children  of  God, 
being  the  children  of  the  resurrection." 

How  beautiful  a  vision  of  our  future  life,  in  which 
every  noble  love  of  man  and  woman  shall  outlive  the 
body  and  become  refined  like  the  sexless  purity  of 
the  angels !  Not  the  frenzy  of  carnal  appetite  but 
the  joy  of  angelic  union  shall  be  the  mutual  love  of 
those  doubly  regenerate  souls. 

The  Sadducees  were  condemned  even  by  the  pagan 
philosophers  in  their  disbelief  in  immortality,  but  yet 
they  had  the  effrontery  to  claim  to  base  it  on  the 
books  of  Moses.  Though  the  future  life  is  everywhere 
presupposed  by  the  Hebrew  lawgiver,  yet  he  does 
not  openly  teach  it.  The  Book  of  Job,  a  divine  reve- 
lation contemporary  with  Moses  if  not  antedating  it, 
and  perfectly  well  known  to  the  Israelites,  taught 
immortality  explicitly.  It  was  a  dogma  which  the 
immemorial  tradition  of  the  entire  human  race  had 
sacredly  transmitted.  But  these  sensualists  would 
neither  learn  from  the  implied  teaching  of  Moses, 
nor  the  express  tradition  of  the  whole  world  as  wit- 
nessed in  the  inspired  pages  of  Job.  Our  Saviour 
unveiled  the  teaching  of  God  in  the  book  of  Exodus: 
'*  And  as  concerning  the  dead  that  they  rise  again, 
have  you  not  read  in  the  book  of  Moses,  Tiow  in  the 
bush  God  spoke  to  him,  saying :  I  am  the  God  of 
Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of 
Jacob?  He  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the 
living.  You  therefore  do  greatly  err."  The  inference 
doubtless  seemed  far-fetched  to  sceptics  like  the  Sad- 
ducees. But  it  was  God's  meaning  followed  by  the 
clear  eye  of  Jesus  out  beyond  the  reach  of  their 
narrow  vision.  The  people  saw  it  plainly  enough, 


THE  GREA  T  COMMANDMENT.  575 

including  some  of  the  Scribes:  "And  the  multitude 
hearing  it  were  in  admiration  at  His  doctrine.  And 
some  of  the  Scribes  answering  said  to  Him  :  Master, 
thou  hast  said  well.  And  after  that  they  [the  Sad- 
ducees]  durst  not  ask  Him  any  more  questions." 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

THE     GREAT     COMMANDMENT. — ' '  WHAT     THINK     YOU 
OF   CHRIST." 

Matt.  xxii.  34-46  ;  Mark  xii.  28-37  ;  Luke  xx.  41-4.4. 

OF  all  the  people  of  Israel,  the  Pharisees  were 
assuredly  those  who  should  have  welcomed  the  Mes- 
sias  and  aided  Him  in  His  mission.  Some  of  them 
did  so,  timidly  at  least ;  the  great  majority  were 
squarely  against  Him  because,  while  they  were  wholly 
national,  the  purpose  of  Jesus  was  to  establish  an 
international  and  universal  religion.  A  few  wavered 
between  the  new  prophet  and  His  opponents,  and 
these  constantly  tried  or  "tempted"  Him. 

A  case  in  point  was  the  question  asked  by  a 
Scribe  about  the  paramount  precept  of  the  law,  which 
followed  the  discomfiture  of  the  Sadducees  concern- 
ing the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  His  act  seems  to 
have  been  agreed  on  at  an  informal  meeting  of 
his  fellows.  "Master,  which  is  the  great  command- 
ment of  the  law  ?  ' ' 

The  typical  Pharisee  would  have  been  pleased  with 
such  an  answer  as  this :  The  great  commandment 
of  the  law  is  to  be  a  true  Jew ;  or  this  :  It  is  to 
keep  the  liturgical  observances.  The  typical  Saddu- 
cee  would  have  been  pleased  with  a  different  reply : 
The  great  commandment  is  to  keep  the  peace  and 


576  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

enjoy  the  good  things  of  life.  No 
Sadducees  would  be  satisfied  with 
any  answer  Jesus  could  possibly 
give.  But  many  of  the  Pharisees — 
some  gladly,  others  in  spite  of  them- 
selves— must  have  assented  to  the 
answer  actually  given.  It  was  the 
same  that  had  been  drawn  out  by 
Jesus  from  another  lawyer  on  a  pre- 
vious occasion  (Luke  x.  25),  as  the 
condition  for  eternal  salvation: 
"And  Jesus  answered  him:  The 
first  commandment  of  all  is  :  Hear, 
O  Israel,  the  Lord  thy  God  is  one 
God  ;  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  thy  whole  heart,  and 
with  thy  whole  soul,  and  with  thy 
whole  mind,  and  with  thy  whole 
strength.  This  is  the  greatest  and 
the  first  commandment.  And  the 
second  is  like  to  it :  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself.  There  is  no  other  commandment  greater  than 
these ;  on  these  two  commandments  dependeth  the 
whole  law  and  the  prophets." 

It  was  a  sweeping  answer  totally  removing  all  mis- 
conception as  to  the  highest  obligation  on  man's 
conscience,  and  it  was  well  worthy  the  consideration 
of  legalists  and  formalists,  as  well  as  all  kinds  of 
disciplinarians.  Conformity  is  right,  and  legal  ob- 
servance is  a  duty,  but  the  main  purpose  of  religion, 
says  Jesus  Christ  in  summarizing  all  truth  of  God, 
natural  and  revealed,  is  to  cleave  to  God  with  our 
affections,  and  esteem  our  neighbor's  welfare  as  much 
as  we  do  our  own.  For  the  sake  of  this  are  given 
not  only  rules  of  conduct  and  forms  of  worship,  but 


But  the  Pharisees,  hearing  that  he  had 
silenced  the  Sadducees,  came  together. 
And  one  of  them,  a  doctor  of  the  law,  that 
had  heard  them  reasoning  together,  and 
seeing  that  he  had  answered  them  well, 
asked  him,  tempting  him  :  Master,  which 
is  the  great  commandment  of  the  law  ? 
And  Jesus  answered  him  :  The  first  com- 
mandment of  all  is  :  Hear,  O  Israel,  the 
Lord  thy  God  is  one  God  ;  and  thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  thy  whole 
heart,  and  with  thy  whole  soul,  and  with 
thy  whole  mind,  and  with  thy  whole 
strength.  This  is  the  greatest  and  the 
first  commandment.  And  the  second  is 
like  to  it :  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself.  T  here  is  no  other  command- 
ment greater  than  these;  on  these  two 
commandments  dependeth  the  whole  law 
and  the  prophets.  And  the  Scribe  said  to 
him:  Well,  Master,  thou  hast  said  in 
truth  that  there  is  one  God,  and  there  is 
no  other  besides  him.  And  that  he  should 
be  loved  with  the  whole  heart,  and  with  the 
whole  understanding,  and  with  the  whole 
soul,  and  with  the  whole  strength,  and  to 
love  one's  neighbor  as  oneself,  is  a  greater 
thing  than  all  holocausts  and  sacrifices. 
And  Jesus,  seeing  that  he  had  answered 
wisely,  said  to  him  :  Thou  art  not  far  from 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  And  no  man  after 
I  that  durst  ask  him  any  question. 


GR£A  T  COMMANDMENT.  $77 

even  the  eternal  dogmas  of  religion.  The  Scribe 
was  won  by  this  great  answer.  It  made  him  at  least 
a  novice  in  the  discipleship. 

Commandments  exact  obedience,  and  Jesus  teaches 
that  the  heart's  allegiance  is  the  only  true  obedi- 
ence. God's  law  goes  straight  to  the  heart  and  wins 
its  interior  conformity  to  outward  observance.  Re- 
ligion must  have  a  law  which  enforces  itself  on  men 
of  good  will ;  the  evil  disposed  it  saves  by  appeal- 
ing to  their  better  selves.  Such  a  law  is  love,  the 
law  of  liberty,  the  law  of  union  between  legislator 
and  subject.  It  claims  all  and  gains  all,  rnind,  heart, 
soul,  and  body.  It  reaches  the  will  through  the  in- 
telligence, which  studies  nothing  except  for  the  joy 
of  love ;  it  reacts  on  the  intelligence  through  the 
will,  because  love  commands  the  thoughts  as  well  as 
the  emotions. 

The  Scribe  had  asked  but  for  the  first  and  great- 
est commandment.  Jesus  gave  him  that  and  added 
what  He  could  not  separate  from  it,  the  second  great 
commandment,  as  closely  joined  to  the  first  as  the 
humanity  of  Jesus  was  joined  to  His  divine  nature — 
the  love  of  our  neighbor.  As  the  sovereignty  of  God 
is  in  His  fatherhood,  so  the  rights  of  our  neighbor 
are  in  God's  brotherhood.  And  all  power  and  all 
right  are  rooted  and  grounded  in  love.  Take  that, 
He  would  say  to  the  Scribe,  and  with  it  you  can 
measure  all  the  dimensions  of  your  duty  to  God, 
and  you  can  assess  the  value  of  all  the  claims  of 
humanity  upon  you.  But  oh  what  a  tax  on  pride 
and  what  a  bankruptcy  for  self-love  is  this  doctrine! 

This  was  the  end  of  questioning  for  the  enemies  of 
Jesus,  until  they  should  seize  and  arraign  Him  in  their 
courts ;  then  they  will  put  Him  questions  as  rivets 
to  His  fetters.  But  now  he  takes  up  the  question- 


And  the  Pharisees  being  gathered  to- 
ether,  Jesus  asked  them  saying  :  What 
ink  you  of  Christ  ?  Whose  son  is  he  ? 
They  say  to  him :  David's.  He  saith  to 
them :  How  then  doth  David  in  spirit  in 
the  Book  of  Psalms  call  him  Lord  ?  saying 
by  the  Holy  Ghost :  The  Lord  said  to  my 
Lord  :  Sit  on  my  right  hand,  until  I  make 
enemies  thy  footstool.  If  David  then 
him  Lord,  how  is  he  his  son  ?  And 
no  man  was  able  to  answer  him  a  word, 
neither  durst  any  man  from  that  day  forth 
ask  him  any  more  questions  ;  and  a  great 
multitude  heard  him  gladly. 


ge 

thi 


thy  ei 
called 


578  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

ing  Himself.  He  had  been  catechised  about  a  most 
essential  point,  the  greatest  law  of  God.  He  returns 
the  favor  by  asking  them,  men  of  learning,  to  tell 
Him  about  the  greatest  act  of  God,  the  union  in 
one  person  of  the  human  and  the  divine  natures, 
David's  Son  and  God's  Son.  It  should  have  been 
the  field  of  all  their  Biblical  research,  as  it  had 
been  the  burden  of  all  God's  prom- 
ises and  the  favorite  theme  of  all  the 
prophets — the  Incarnation  of  the  un- 
created Word  in  the  seed  of  David. 
What  could  they  teach  about  that  ? 
for  they  were  Rabbis  and  teachers 
in  Israel.  The  common  people, 
simple,  direct  in  their  judgment, 
God  fearing,  God  expecting,  had 
answered  the  question  a  few  da>s 
before  by  a  tumult  of  joyous  welcome  :  "  Hosanna  lo 
the  Son  of  David ;  blessed  is  He  that  cometh  in  the 
name  of  the  L/ord."  A  devout  mind  learns  more  by 
one  loving  glance  into  Scripture,  than  a  proud  doctor 
by  a  life-time  of  study. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

"THE   SCRIBES  AND    PHARISEES    HAVE  SITTEN  ON 
THE  CHAIR  OP  MOSES." — ' '  WOE  TO  YOU,  SCRIBES 

AND   PHARISEES." — THE   WIDOW'S   MITE. 

Matt,  xxiii.  1-39  ;  Mark  xii.  38-4.4. ;  Luke  xx.  45-47* 
and  xxi.  1-4. 

JESUS,  now  nearing  the  end  of  His  life,  took  those 
who  had  fought  against  Him,  set  them  over  against 
the  people,  and  condemned  them  in  an  invective  the 
equal  of  which  has  never  been  known.  But  as  these 


"WOE  TO  YOU,  SCRIBES  AND  PHARISEES."  579 

Pharisees  and  Scribes  and  Sadducees  were  officials 
of  God's  Covenant  and  stood  for  lawful  authority 
among  the  Jews,  the  Master  was  careful  to  take 
account  of  that.  Obedience  is  due  to  the  law  and 
not  to  the  person  who  administers  it.  His  authority 
is  to  be  obeyed  whether  he  be  a  worthy  represen- 
tative of  it  or  not.  As  a  good  man  cannot  make  a 
bad  law  good,  neither  can  a  bad  man  make  God's 
law  bad,  or  his  evil  life  absolve  us  from  obedience 
to  his  lawful  decisions. 

The  Master  gathered  to  Him  both  His  chosen  dis- 
ciples and  the  general  mass  of  listeners  for  this  im- 
portant teaching:  "Then  Jesus  spoke  to  the  multi- 
tudes and  to  His  disciples,  saying  in  His  doctrine  and 
in  the  hearing  of  all  the  people  :  The  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  have  sitten  on  the  chair  of  Moses ;  all 
things  therefore  whatsoever  they  shall  say  to  you 
observe  and  do,  but  according  to  their  works  do 
ye  not;  for  they  say  and  do  not." 

Then  follows  the  terrible  litany  of  the  Pharisees' 
sins.  They  exempted  themselves  from  the  obligations 
which  they  enforced  mercilessly  on  others :  ' '  For 
they  bind  heavy  and  insupportable  burdens,  and  lay 
them  on  men's  shoulders,  but  with  a  finger  of  their 
own  they  will  not  move  them." 

They  were  Pleasers  of  Meny  eaten  up  with  vanity, 
and  the  meanest  kind  of  vanity,  that  of  parading 
religious  fervor.  ' '  And  all  their  works  they  do  for 
to  be  seen  of  men  ;  for  they  make  their  phylacteries 
broad  and  enlarge  their  fringes."  This  was  to  abuse 
a  laudable  custom  (Exodus  xiii.  1-16)  of  wearing  a 
little  tablet  as  a  memento  of  divine  favors  sewed  to 
the  sleeve;  the  Pharisees  made  this  an  ostentatious 
and  boastful  parade  of  piety  :  '  *  Beware  of  the  Scribes 
who  desire  to  walk  in  long  robes,  and  love  saluta- 


580  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

tions  in  the  market-place,  and  the  first  chairs  in  the 
synagogues,  and  the  chief  rooms  at  feasts,  and  to  be 
called  by  men  Rabbi." 

They  were  Oppressors  of  the  Poor,  many  of  them 
being  usurers,  foreclosing  mortgages  upon  their  debtors 
as  savage  beasts  close  their  jaws  upon  their  prey : 
"Who  devour  the  houses  of  widows,  feigning  long 
prayers.  These  shall  receive  greater  damnation." 

They  were  Usurpers  of  Authority.  The  title  Rabbi, 
or  Master  or  Teacher,  was  not  theirs  by  deserving, 
yet  they  exacted  it  to  the  injury  of  the  Mastership 
of  God,  whose  plain  teaching  they  obscured  by  human 
devices.  It  was  only  in  this  sense  that  Jesus  forbade 
His  teachers  of  men  and  His  masters  of  doctrine  to 
assume  those  titles.  For  if  the  Church  gives  the 
title  of  Master  to  her  priests,  it  is  because  she  stands 
for  Christ,  the  only  Master  ;  and  if  the  people  call 
their  priest  Father,  it  is  by  the  divinely  planted  in- 
stinct of  filial  love  for  one  who  in  his  ministrations 
gives  them  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood 
of  Christ.  And  these  distinctions  but  bring  out  the 
more  clearly  the  brotherly  equality  of  souls  before 
God — all  being  one  in  their  origin  as  children  of  God, 
one  in  their  destiny,  one  in  the  means  of  attaining  to 
it.  Meantime  the  noblest  distinction  is  seen  in  the  hu- 
mility of  the  most  gifted  brethren  in  serving  the  lowly 
ones :  ' '  Be  not  you  called  Rabbi,  for  One  is  your 
Master  and  all  you  are  brethren.  And  call  none  your 
father  upon  earth,  for  One  is  your  Father,  who  is  in 
Heaven.  Neither  be  ye  called  masters,  for  one  is  your 
Master,  Christ.  He  that  is  the  greatest  among  you 
shall  be  your  servant,  and  whosoever  shall  exalt  him- 
self shall  be  humbled,  and  he  that  shall  humble  him- 
self shall  be  exalted." 

The  Pharisees  were  Hypocrites.     There  is  no  vice 


••  W0£  TO  YOU,  SCRIBES  AND  PHARISEES."          581 

more  detestable  than  hypocrisy,  for  it  is  sin  mas- 
querading in  the  honorable  robes  of  godliness  ;  there 
is  none  more  to  be  dreaded,  because  it  can  do  its 
deadly  work  with  impunity.  The  hypocrite  is  not 
only  an  enemy  but  a  spy.  Such  was  the  Pharisee. 
Professing  orthodox  religion,  he  hindered  men  from 
the  perfect  religion  of  God,  Jesus  Christ.  He  made 
converts  and  embittered  them  with  devilish  pride  and 
hate.  "But  woe  to  you,  Scribes  and  Pharisees,"  ex- 
claimed the  Master ;  ( '  hypocrites  !  because  you  shut 
the  kingdom  of  Heaven  against  men ;  for  you  your- 
selves do  not  enter  in,  and  those  who  are  going  in 
you  suffer  not  to  enter.  Woe  to  you,  Scribes  and 
Pharisees,  hypocrites !  because  you  go  round  about 
the  sea  and  the  land  to  make  one  proselyte,  and  when 
he  is  made,  you  make  him  the  child  of  Hell  two-fold 
more  than  yourselves." 

The  Pharisees  were  Blind  Guides,  and  wilfully  so. 
They  set  themselves  up  to  be  teachers  of  the  law  of 
God,  and  they  obscured  instead  of  revealing  it.  They 
imposed  upon  men  observances  of  their  own  inven- 
tion, and  enacted  laws  where  God  had  left  liberty. 
By  their  additions  and  interpretations  they  made  an 
already  hard  law  intolerable.  Our  Saviour  instanced 
their  silly  teaching  about  oaths  :  "  Woe  to  you,  blind 
guides !  that  say :  Whosoever  shall  swear  by  the 
Temple,  it  is  nothing ;  but  he  that  shall  swear  by  the 
gold  of  the  Temple  is  a  debtor.  Ye  foolish  and 
blind  !  for  whether  is  greater,  the  gold,  or  the  Temple 
that  sanctifieth  the  gold  ?  And  whosoever  shall  swear 
by  the  altar,  it  is  nothing ;  but  whosoever  shall  swear 
by  the  gift  that  is  upon  the  altar  is  a  debtor.  Ye 
blind  !  for  whether  is  greater,  the  gift  or  the  altar 
that  sanctifieth  the  gift  ?  He  therefore  that  sweareth 
by  the  altar,  sweareth  by  it  and  by  all  things  that 


5^2  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

are  upon  it.  And  whosoever  shall  swear  by  the 
Temple,  sweareth  by  it  and  by  Him  that  dwelleth  in 
it.  And  he  that  sweareth  by  Heaven,  sweareth  by 
the  throne  of  God,  and  by  Him  that  sitteth  thereon." 
False  orthodoxy,  false  zeal,  false  devotion,  false  direc- 
tion of  souls — hypocrisy,  obstinacy,  pride,  greed,  petti- 
ness, scrupulosity  in  trifling  observances  and  barefaced 
laxity  in  the  gravest  religious  duties:  "Woe  to  you, 
Scribes  and  Pharisees  !  because  you  tithe  mint  and 
anise  and  cummin,  and  have  left  the  weightier  things 
of  the  law,  judgment  and  mercy  and  faith.  These 
things  you  ought  to  have  done,  and  not  leave  those 
undone.  Blind  guides,  who  strain  out  a  gnat  and 
swallow  a  camel." 

The  Pharisees  were  Formalists.  They  reversed  the 
true  order,  which  is  that  the  outer  part  of  religion 
shall  serve  the  inner  part.  They  made  everything 
tributary  to  the  Jewish  race  and  the  Mosaic  cere- 
monial. Both  were  good  onry  as  means  to  an  end, 
which  end  was  the  love  of  God,  and  love  of  God's 
children  in  every  race.  They  wore  themselves  out 
with  ablutions  of  the  body,  and  of  the  body  only — 
their  souls  were  full  of  vice:  "Woe  to  you,  Scribes 
and  Pharisees,  hypocrites  !  because  you  make  clean  the 
outside  of  the  cup  and  of  the  dish,  but  within  you  are 
full  of  rapine  and  uncleanness.  Thou  blind  Pharisee, 
first  make  clean  the  inside  of  the  cup  and  of  the  dish, 
that  the  outside  may  become  clean.  Woe  to  you, 
Scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites  !  because  you  are  like 
to  whited  sepulchres,  which  outwardly  appear  to  men 
beautiful,  but  within  are  full  of  dead  men's  bones  and 
of  all  filthiness.  So  you  also  outwardly  indeed  appear 
to  men  just,  but  inwardly  you  are  full  of  hypocrisy 
and  iniquity." 

Not  only  against  the  living  did  the  Pharisees  sin, 


"WOE  TO  YOU,  SCRIBES  AND  PHARISEES."  583 

as  being  religious  braggarts  over  their  brethren,  but 
also  against  their  dead  predecessors  in  office.  For 
while  they  lauded  the  prophets  whom  their  fathers, 
the  ancient  Jews,  had  persecuted,  yet  were  they  worse 
than  they,  for  they  persecuted  the  very  Messias 
Himself  and  were  even  now  lying  in  wait  to  kill 
Him.  Jesus  showed  this  in  His  condemnation  of  them 
as  False  Children  of  False  Fathers. 

"Woe  to  you,  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites! 
that  build  the  sepulchres  of  the  prophets,  and  adorn 
the  monuments  of  the  just,  and  say  :  If  we  had  been 
in  the  days  of  our  fathers,  we  would  not  have  been 
partakers  with  them  in  the  blood  of  the  prophets. 
Wherefore  you  are  witnesses  against  yourselves,  that 
you  are  the  sons  of  them  that  killed  the  prophets." 

Then  follows  an  awful  anathema,  only  to  be  ex- 
ceeded in  horror  by  that  invoked  by  the  conspirators 
upon  themselves  not  long  afterwards: — "His  blood 
be  upon  us  and  upon  our  children  !  ' '  Jesus  launches 
upon  them  the  malediction  of  God  for  their  Blood- 
guiltiness :  "Fill  ye  up  then  the  measure  of  your 
fathers.  You  serpents,  generation  of  vipers,  how 
will  you  flee  from  the  judgment  of  Hell?  Therefore 
behold  I  send  to  you  prophets  and  wise  men  and 
scribes,  and  some  of  them  you  will  put  to  death  and 
crucify,  and  some  you  will  scourge  in  your  syna- 
gogues, and  persecute  from  city  to  city,  that  upon 
you  may  come  all  the  just  blood  that  hath  been  shed 
upon  the  earth,  from  the  blood  of  Abel  the  just,  even 
unto  the  blood  of  Zacharias  the  son  c  f  Barachias, 
whom  you  killed  between  the  Temple  and  the  altar. 
Amen,  I  say  to  you,  all  these  things  shall  come  upon 
this  generation." 

It  was  not  the  gentle  Master's  custom  to  condemn 
with  unmixed  severity,  even  when  the  case  was,  like 


584 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  C//A7.S  T. 


He  beheld  how  the  people  cast  money 
into  the  treasury,  and  many  that  were  rich 
cast  in  much.  And  there  came  a  certain 
poor  widow,  and  she  cast  in  two  mites, 
which  make  a  farthing.  And  calling  his 
disciples  together  he  saith  to  them  :  Amen, 
I  say  to  you,  this  poor  widow  hath  cast  in 
more  than  all  they  who  have  cast  into  the 
treasury.  For  all  they  did  cast  in  of  their 
abundance,  but  she  of  her  want  cast  in  all 
she  had,  even  her  whole  living. 


this,    of     unmitigated    wickedness. 
His  heart  only  the  more  generously 
overflowed  when  its  waters  of  affec- 
tion   had    been    for   a    moment    re- 
strained by  the  duty  of  reproof.     It 
was  so  now,  as  He  looked  over  the 
heads  of  His  scowling  enemies,  and 
opened  His  soul  to  the  city  of  God, 
to    the    multitude    of   its    dwellers   and    its    hosts    of 
pilgrim    worshippers:     "Jerusalem,    Jerusalem!"  He 
cried   in   tones   of  deepest   sorrow,    His   loving    heart 
taking  in  all  His  enemies  under  the  holy  city's  name, 
"thou    that   killest    the   prophets,    and    stonest   them 
that    are    sent  unto   thee;    how  often  would    I   have 
gathered     together    thy    children,    as    the    hen    doth 
gather     her    chickens    under     her    wings,    and    thou 
wouldst  not.     Behold   your  house  shall  be  left  to  you 
desolate.     For  I  say  to  you,    you   shall   not  see   Me 
henceforth  till  you  say  :    Blessed  is  he  that 
cometh   in   the  name   of  the   Lord."     Only 
when  this  singularly  obstinate  race  shall  be 
glad  to  recognize  the  Messias  will  He  return 
to  renew  His  mission.     When  shall  that  be? 
St.  Paul   affirms   that    the  "fulness  of    the 
Gentiles"  will    precede  the  entrance  of  the 
Jews  into  Christ's  kingdom. 

Kxhausted,  perhaps,  by  His  long  and 
violent  debate,  Jesus  withdrew  into  the  wo- 
men's court  and  sat  down  opposite  the 
treasury,  as  was  called  the  place  for  the 
deposit  of  the  legal  dues  for  the  support  of 
the  Temple.  He  watched  with  interest  the 
different  kinds  of  people  and  their  various 
manner  of  making  their  offering.  Touclud 
"Sheof  her  want  cast  in  all  she  had."  with  the  generosity  of  one  poor  woman,  He 


THE  UNBELIEF  OF  THE  PHARISEES. 


585 


•gave  a  beautiful  lesson.  Thus  He  taught  in  the  day- 
time in  and  about  the  Temple,  and  at  night  retired 
to  Bethany,  or  to  the  tent  of  a  disciple  on  Mount 
Olivet,  all  the  people  watching  again  in  the  morn- 
ings for  His  return. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  UNBEUEF  OF  THE    PHARISEES. — THE  UNION 
OF  THE  MESSIAS  WITH   HIS  ETERNAI,  FATHER. 

John  xii.  37—50. 

BEFORE  dismissing  the  subject  of  the  Pharisees 
and  their  vices,  Jesus  discoursed  upon  their  unbelief. 
This  had  been  a  subject  of  prophecy :  '  *  And  whereas 
He  had  done  so  many  miracles  before  them,  they  be- 
lieved not  in  Him,  that  the  saying  of  Isaias  the 
prophet  might  be  fulfilled  which  he 
said  :  Lord,  who  hath  believed  our 
hearing  ?  and  to  whom  hath  the  arm 
of  the  Lord  been  revealed  ?"  It  was 
not  that  God  hindered  their  belief 
in  order  that  His  prophet  might  be 
justified,  but  their  unbelief  was  a 
penalty  of  their  pride  and  hypocrisy. 
"Therefore  they  could  not  believe, 
because  Isaias  said  again  :  He  hath 
blinded  their  eyes,  and  hardened  their 
heart,  that  they  should  not  see  with 
their  eyes,  nor  understand  with  their 


But  Jesus  cried  out  and  said  :  He  that 
believeth  in  me,  doth  not  believe  in  me, 
but  in  him  that  sent  me.  And  he  that 
seeth  me,  seeth  him  that  sent  me.  I  am 
come  a  light  into  the  world ;  that  whoso- 
ever believeth  in  me,  may  not  remain  in 
darkness.  And  if  any  man  hear  my  words, 
and  keep  them  not :  I  do  not  judge  him  : 
for  1  came  not  to  judge  the  world,  but  to 
save  the  world.  He  that  despiseth  me, 
and  receiveth  not  my  words,  hath  one  that 
judgeth  him  ;  the  word  that  I  have  spoken, 
the  same  shall  judge  him  in  the  last  day. 
For  I  have  not  spoken  of  myself,  but  the 
Father  who  sent  me,  he  gave  me  command- 
ment what  1  should  say  and  what  I  should 
speak.  And  I  know  that  his  command- 
ment is  life  everlasting.  The  things  there- 
fore that  I  speak  ;  even  as  the  Father  said 
unto  me,  so  do  I  speak. 


heart,  and  be  converted  and  I  should  heal  them.  These 
things  said  Isaias  when  he  saw  His  glory  and  spoke 
of  Him." 

Although  the  divine  persuasion  of  Jesus  won  some 
minds  among  the  Jewish  leaders,  yet  these  being  set 


586  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

upon  their  worldly  interests  and  the  honors  of  the' 
synagogue,  did  not  rise  to  the  courage  of  their  convic- 
tions. St.  John  says:  "However,  many  of  the  chief 
men  also  believed  in  Him,  but  because  of  the  Phari- 
sees they  did  not  confess  Him,  that  they  might  not  be 
cast  out  of  the  synagogue.  For  they  loved  the  glory 
of  men  more  than  the  glory  of  God.'*  How  often  do 
we  see  the  interests  of  true  religion  risked,  procras- 
tinated, and  finally  ruined,  because  its  advocates, 
sometimes  even  its  official  guardians,  are  inspired  by 
worldly  prudence  rather  than  by  manly  courage  in  its 
defence.  To  avoid  trouble,  to  postpone  trouble — here 
is  the  smooth  excuse  of  most  of  those  who  allow  truth 
and  virtue  to  go  to  wreck,  yielding  to  cowardice  under 
the  guise  of  prudence.  Such  was  the  fatal  vice  of 
the  Pharisees  and  elders  of  Judaism  who  believed  in 
Christ. 

That  they  and  all  others  dealt  with  the  eternal 
Father  when  they  dealt  with  Jesus,  He  had  often  en- 
forced upon  His  hearers.  He  did  so  once  more  and 
with  great  emphasis  :  "  But  Jesus  cried  out  and  said  : 
He  that  believeth  in  Me,  doth  not  believe  in  Me  but  in 
Him  that  sent  Me.  And  He  that  seeth  Me,  seeth  Him 
that  sent  Me.  I  am  come  a  light  into  the  world,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  Me  may  not  remain  in  dark- 
ness." And  this  light-giving  was  life-giving;  for  it 
was  to  redeem  men  from  sin  that  He  taught  as  well 
as  suffered,  and  His  office  of  judge  was  to  be  mani- 
fested only  after  all  this  was  done :  ' '  And  if  any  man 
hear  My  words  and  keep  them  not,  I  do  not  judge 
him,  for  I  came  not  to  judge  the  world  but  to  save 
the  world."  How  judgment  exists  and  how  it  has 
its  rights  He  shows :  '  *  He  that  despiseth  Me  and  re- 
ceiveth  not  My  words,  hath  One  that  judgeth  him." 
It  is  God  the  Father  who  judges  in  the  secret  con- 


ONE  WITH  HIS  ETERNAL  FA  THER.  587 

science  of  the  culprit;  and  at  a  final  reckoning  the 
word  of  truth,  now  rejected,  shall  rise  up  against  the 
sinner  as  the  record  of  his  crime  of  wilful  unbelief: 
"The  word  that  I  have  spoken,  the  same  shall  judge 
him  in  the  last  day."  The  conclusion  is  plain — the 
Father  and  the  Son  are  one,  and  their  message  is  their 
one  divine  revelation  of  the  commandments  and  the 
life  of  God  :  ' '  For  I  have  not  spoken  of  Myself,  but 
the  Father  who  sent  Me,  He  gave  Me  commandment 
what  I  should  say,  and  what  I  should  speak.  And 
I  know  that  His  commandment  is  life  everlasting. 
The  things  therefore  that  I  speak,  even  as  the  Father 
said  unto  Me,  so  do  I  speak." 

The  public  ministry  of  Jesus  was  near  its  end,  and 
nothing  could  be  more  miserable  than  what  seemed  to 
be  its  results.  Jesus  was  now  departing  from  the 
Temple  of  His  Father  as  a  man  devoted  to  condem- 
nation and  death  by  the  leaders  of  the  Father's  peo- 
ple and  religion.  The  secular  ambition  of  the  race 
had  grown  so  strong  that  it  smothered  its  spiritual  in- 
stincts, which  like  a  tree  whose  trunk  has  been  wound- 
e&,  gave  forth  only  the  barren  leaves  of  greed  for 
worldly  power,  and  an  overgrowth  of  formalism  in  re- 
Jigion.  Jesus  had  failed  ;  in  spite  of  the  sublimity  of 
His  doctrine,  the  holiness  of  His  life,  the  amazing 
power  of  His  miracles,  He  had  failed.  His  people, 
taken  in  their  leaders  and  rulers,  were  unconvinced ; 
and  these  leaders  and  rulers  had  entered  into  a  con- 
spiracy which  was  to  put  Him  to  torture  and  to 
death. 

Weighed  down  with  the  woe  of  this,  Jesus  went  out 
from  the  Temple  for  the  last  time. 


588  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER   XX. 

THE  TERRIBLE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  DESTRUCTION  OP 
THE  CITY  AND  THE  END  OF  THE  WORUX 


Matt.  xxiv.  1-13  ;  Mark  xiii.  1-9  ;  Luke  xxi.  5-13. 

THE  Messias,  before  leaving  the  outer  enclosure 
of  the  Temple,  turned  sadly  and  gazed  upon  its  splen- 
did colonnades  and  massive  front.  "One  of  His  dis- 
ciples saith  to  Him  :  Master,  behold  what  manner  of 
stones  and  what  buildings  are  here.*'  The  words 
were  an  exclamation  of  joy  and  of  religious  and  racial 
pride  in  the  glories  of  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem.  But 
such  feelings  were  not  those  of  Jesus  ;  rather  He  was 
filled  with  the  omens  of  future  doom,  and  saw  the 
Temple  and  the  race  which  adored  God  in  it  beaten 
to  the  earth  and  scattered  abroad:  "And  Jesus  an- 
swering saith  to  him  :  Seest  thou  all  these  great 
buildings  ?  The  days  will  come  in  which  there  shall 
not  be  left  a  stone  upon  a  stone  that  shall  not  be 
thrown  down." 

Evening  was  approaching  as  they  moved  out 
towards  Bethany,  passing  over  Mount  Olivet,  all  minds 
vibrating  with  this  direful  farewell  to  Israel's  holy 
shrine.  When  they  had  passed  through  the  gate  and 
were  come  to  the  summit  of  the  steep  ascent  of  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  Jesus  sat  down  to  rest.  The  Apostles 
had  conferred  together,  and  their  troubled  minds  now 
found  voice.  The  foremost  among  them  begged  Jesus 
to  explain  His  ominous  utterance.  The  western  sky 
was  illumined  with  the  rays  of  the  setting  sun,  and 
the  massive  structure  of  the  Temple,  with  its  pinnacles 
and  gables,  was  clearly  defined  against  this  bright 
background  :  '  '  And  as  He  sat  on  the  Mount  of  Olivet 
over  against  the  Temple,  Peter  and  James  and  John 


THE  TERRIBLE  PROPHECY. 


589 


And  as  he  was  going  out  of  the  temple, 
one  of  his  disciples  said  to  him  :  Master, 
behold  what  manner  of  stones  and  what 
buildings  are  here.  And  Jesus  answering 
said  to  him  :  Seest  thou  all  these  great 
buildings  ?  The  days  will  come  in  which 
there  shaft  not  be  left  a  stone  upon  a  stone 
that  shall  not  be  thrown  down.  Nation 
shall  rise  against  nation  and  kingdom 
against  kingdom.  And  there  shall  be  great 
earthquakes  in  divers  places,  and  pesti- 
lences and  famines  and  terrors  from  heav- 
en, and  there  shall  be  great  signs ;  these 
things  are  the  beginning  of  sorrows.  But 
look  to  yourselves;  for  before  all  these 
things  they  will  lay  hands  on  you  and  per- 
secute you,  delivering  you  up  to  the  syna- 
gogues and  into  prisons,  dragging  you  be- 
fore kings  and  crovernors  for  my  name's 
sake.  And  it  shall  happen  unto  you  for  a 
testimony.  And  this  gospel  of  the  king- 
dom shall  be  preached  in  the  whole  world 
for  a  testimony  to  all  nations,  and  then 
shall  the  consummation  come. 


and  Andrew  asked  Him  apart :  Tell 
us,  when  shall  these  things  be  ?  and 
what  shall  be  the  sign  when  all 
these  things  shall  begin  to  be  ful- 
filled ?  '*  This  referred,  as  is  plain, 
to  the  ruin  of  Jerusalem  and  the  de- 
struction of  the  Temple.  But  they 
knew  that  their  Master  coupled  with 
the  end  of  Israel  the  end  of  the 
world,  one  being  the  shadowy  type 
of  the-  other.  Hence  they  added  : 
"And  what  shall  be  the  sign  of 
Thy  coming  ?  ' ' 

Upon  this  the  Master  gave  them 
and  us  His  prophecy  of  the  divine 

judgment.     He  told  of  the  end   of    ' 

the  chosen  people  and  the  end  of  the  world  and  His 
words  were  interspersed  with  many  lessons  for  the 
guidance  of  the  Church  and  her  members  in  future 
ages.  He  mingled  all  these  together,  and  for  that 
reason  the  brief  account  of  the  Evangelists  lacks  the 
clear  divisions  which  His  own  careful  teaching  must 
have  secured.  Faithful  Jew  as  Jesus  was,  the  de- 
struction of  the  Holy  City  was  to  Him,  and  must 
ever  remain  to  us,  of  gravity  great  enough  to  make  its 
awful  terrors  the  outlines  of  His  picture  of  the  end 
of  the  world  itself. 

First  He  warned  the  new  Church  against  the  vari- 
ous impostors  who  should  arise  (as  history  tells  us  they 
actually  did  arise)  in  the  near  future,  wild  leaders  of 
fanatical  Jews,  aggravating  the  woes  of  the  people  and 
hastening  their  slaughter:  "And  Jesus  answering 
said  to  them:  Take  heed  that  no  man  seduce  you. 
For  many  will  come  in  My  name,  saying  :  I  am 
Christ;  and  they  will  deceive  many,  saying:  I  am 


590  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST, 

He,  and  the  time  is  at  hand;  go  ye  not  after  them." 
He  exhorts  them  to  rise  above  the  human  terrors  of 
war,  as  indeed  the  Church  of  Christ  has  always  done, 
gaming  souls  and  even  whole  races  amid  its  horrors. 
'  *  And  when  you  shall  hear  of  wars,  and  rumors  of 
wars,  and  seditions,  be  not  terrified ;  these  things 
must  first  come  to  pass,  but  the  end  is  not  yet." 
What  He  thus  calls  the  ' '  beginning  of  sorrows  ' '  are 
the  convulsions  of  both  the  moral  and  the  material 
universe  :  "  Nation  shall  rise  against  nation,  and  king- 
dom against  kingdom.  And  there  shall  be.  great 
earthquakes  in  divers  places,  and  pestilences  and 
famines  and  terrors  from  heaven,  and  there  shall  be 
great  signs.  These  things  are  the  beginning  of  sor- 
rows." The  future  trials  of  the  Apostles  and  of  their 
successors  rise  into  the  prophetic  vision  of  their 
Master  mingled  with  the  scenes  of  war  and  destruc- 
tion marking  the  end  of  the  Jewish  nationality. 
"But  look  to  yourselves,"  He  said;  "  for  before  all 
these  things  they  will  lay  hands  on  you,  and  persecute 
you,  delivering  you  up  to  the  synagogues  and  into 
prisons,  dragging  you  before  kings  and  governors  for 
My  name's  sake.  And  it  shall  happen  unto  you  for  a 
testimony.  Then  shall  they  deliver  you  up  to  be 
afflicted,  and  shall  put  you  to  death,  and  you  shall 
be  hated  by  all  nations  for  My  name's  sake.  And 
then  shall  many  be  scandalized  and  shall  betray  one 
another. ' ' 

Added  to  these  trials  was  to  be  that  of  a  spurious 
Christianity,  various  kinds  of  heresy  and  apostasy, 
traitors  in  the  citadel  as  well  as  enemies  battling  out- 
side the  gates.  "  And  many  false  prophets  shall  rise, 
and  shall  seduce  many.  And  because  iniquity  hath 
abounded,  the  charity  of  many  shall  grow  cold.  But 
he  that  shall  persevere  to  the  end,  he  shall  be  saved.',' 


PROPHECY  OF  THE  END  FURTHER  ENFORCED.   591 

The  hopeful  soul  of  man  may  easily  believe  pro- 
phecies of  triumph,  but  how  hard  for  these  Jews  of  the 
common  stock  of  the  people  to  credit  the  Lord's  woe- 
ful vision  of  the  end  of  their  nation  ?  There  before 
their  eyes  shone  the  gorgeous  Temple,  its  roof  glisten- 
ing with  plates  of  beaten  gold,  its  white  marble  front 
resplendent  in  the  evening  light  with  innumerable 
columns  and  majestic  walls — all  to  go  down  in  total 
ruin,  irretrievable  ruin,  burying  in  hopeless  death 
their  venerated  Hebrew  faith.  And  instead  ?  No 
promise  except  that  of  an  essentially  spiritual  religion. 
Yet  that  was  the  holy  gift  of  a  miraculous  faith,  the 
soul's  unshaken  loyalty,  a  religion  whose  essence  was 
spirit  and  truth,  whose  abiding  temple  was  reserved 
for  the  Heavenly  Jerusalem,  whose  race  was  no  race, 
but  all  humanity  united  in  an  equal  brotherhood. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

THE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  END   FURTHER  ENFORCED 
AND   ENLARGED. 

Matt.  xxiv.  14.— 31  /  Mark  xiii.  10—27  >  Luke  xxi.  14.  -27. 

THE  destruction  of  the  Temple  and  of  the  city,  the 
end  of  the  world,  and  the  second  coming  of  Jesus  were 
three  events  which  the  Apostles  thought  would  be 
simultaneous,  and  much  that  their  Master  had  so  far 
said  seemed  to  justify  this  opinion.  But  as  He  went 
on  they  were  thrown  into  that  state  of  uncertainty  as 
to  "  times  and  moments"  in  which  all  Christendom 
has  ever  since  remained.  From  the  time  that  St.  Paul 
warned  his  converts  at  Thessalonica  against  believing 
that  the  day  of  the  Lord  was  at  hand  (II.  Thess.  ii.  2) 
till  our  own  day,  writers  and  preachers  have  tried  to 


592  LIFE  Of  JESUS  CHRIST. 

read  the  signs  foretold  by  Jesus,  including  great  saints 
and  pontiffs,  seeing  in  the  calamities  of  their  times 
the  gathering  of  the  portents  into  their  fulness;  but 
this  has  always  proved  illusor)r.  As  before  noted,  the 
whole  prophecy  is  like  the  effect  of  three  objects  in 
line  with  each  other  and  widely  separated,  but  seen 
without  perspective,  their  forms  mingling  and  blend- 
ing indistinguishably  together,  known  to  be  three  and 
seen  as  one.  The  end  of  the  Holy  City  was  the  type 
of  the  end  of  the  world,  and  it  pleased  the  Saviour 
to  place  both  before  our  gaze  as  preceding  His  second 
coming,  one  actually,  the  other  figuratively.  It  is 
only  when  thus  interpreted  that  the  lessons  of  this  long 
and  marvellous  discourse  of  Jesus  can  be  understood. 

Resuming  His  theme,  He  gave  us  one  test  of  the 
nearness  of  the  end  which  seems  intelligible ;  namely, 
the  spread  of  His  Kingdom.  "And  this  Gospel  of 
the  Kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  the  whole  world  for 
a  testimony  to  all  nations,  and  then  shall  the  con- 
summation come."  This  was  afterwards  supplemented 
by  St.  Paul's  revelation  of  the  final  conversion  of 
the  Jews  as  a  race  following  the  Gospel's  conquest 
of  the  entire  Gentile  world  ;  a  gracious  and  consoling 
thought  for  all  who  realize  that  every  sacred  tie  of 
blood  kinship  bound  our  Saviour  most  affectionately  to 
this  unhappy  people  :  * (  For  I  would  not  have  you, 
ignorant,  brethren,  of  this  mystery  (lest  you  should 
be  wise  in  your  own  conceits),  that  blindness  in  part 
has  happened  in  Israel,  until  the  fulness  of  the  Gen- 
tiles should  come  in.  And  so  all  Israel  should  be 
saved "  (Rom.  xi.  25). 

And  now  follows  Christ's  prophecy  of  the  heroic 
career  of  His  disciples,  waging  war  against  the  cruel 
tyranny  of  the  heathen,  and  also  against  the  worldli- 
ness  of  their  nearest  relations.  I*et  any  man  compare 


PROPHEC  Y  OF  THE  END  FUR  THER  ENFORCED.    593 

the  eveiits  of  the  first  three  centuries  after  Christ  with 
this  awful  picture,  and  he  will  adore  God  no  less  in 
the  constancy  of  the  martyrs  than  in  the  steady  ad- 
vance of  their  religion  to  final  victory. 

It  is  calculated  that  from  the  death  of  St.  Stephen, 
the  first  martyr,  till  the  peace  of  the  Church  at  the 
end  of  the  third  century  no  less  than  three  millions 
of  martyrs  shed  their  blood  for  the 
honor  of  Jesus  Christ — men,  women, 
and  even  children ;  nobles  and 
slaves;  every  grade  of  the  priest- 
hood, including  all  but  two  of  the 
Popes ;  the  unceasing  sacrifice  varied 
only  by  the  heathen's  greater  or  less 
ferocity,  a  tempest  of  rage  which 
sometimes  seemed  to  sweep  the  en- 
tire Christian  religion  from  the  face 
of  the  earth.  Occasionally  the  fires 
of  hatred  were  restricted  to  one  or 
two  localities,  but  embracing  alto- 


And  when  they  shall  lead  you  and  de- 
liver you  up,  be  not  thoughtful  beforehand 
what  you  shall  speak,  but  whatsoever  shall 
be  given  you  in  that  hour,  that  speak  ye. 
For  it  is  not  you  that  speak,  but  the  Holy 
Ghost.  For  1  will  give  you  a  mouth  and 
wisdom,  which  all  your  adversaries  shall  not 
be  able  to  resist  and  gainsay.  And  you 
shall  be  betrayed  by  your  parents  and  breth- 
ren and  kinsmen  and  friends,  and  some  of 
you  they  will  put  to  death.  And  the  broth- 
er shall  betray  the  brother  unto  death,  and 
the  father  the  son,  and  children  shall 
rise  up  against  the  parents  and  shall  work 
their  death.  And  you  shall  be  hated  by  all 
men  for  my  name's  sake,  but  a  hair  of  your 
head  shall  not  perish.  In  your  patience 
you  shall  possess  your  souls ;  but  he  that 
shall  endure  unto  the  end  he  shall  be 
saved. 


g ether  ten  separate  persecutions  by  universal  enact- 
ment and  enforcement.  But  the  faith  of  Christ  could 
no  more  be  exterminated  by  heathendom  than  the 
sunlight  by  darkness.  The  Light  of  the  World 
climbed  upwards  every  instant  till  at  last  it  lit  up  the 
whole  world  with  its  glory. 

The  Master  resumes  the  Vision  of  the  Judgment : 
'  *  When  therefore  you  shall  see  the  abomination  of 
desolation  which  was  spoken  of  by  Daniel  the  prophet, 
standing  in  the  holy  place  (he  that  readeth,  let  him 
understand),  and  when  you  shall  see  Jerusalem  com- 
passed about  with  an  army,  know  then  that  the  deso- 
lation thereof  is  at  hand.  Then  let  those  that  are  in 
Judea  flee  to  the  mountains,  and  those  that  are  in 
the  midst  thereof  depart  out,  and  those  who  are  in 


594  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

the  countries  not  enter  into  it ;  and  he  that  is  on  the 
housetop,  let  him  not  come  down  to  take  anything 
out  of  his  house ;  and  he  that  is  in  the  field,  let  him 
not  go  back  to  take  his  coat.  For  these  are  the  days 
of  vengeance,  that  all  things  may  be  fulfilled  that  are 
written." 

So  dreadful  are  the  facts  of  history  about  the  siege 
and  destruction  of  Jerusalem  under  Titus,  A.D.  70, 
that  they  strain  the  power  of  belief.  The  city  was 
crowded  with  pilgrims  to  the  Passover  when  it  was 
surrounded  by  the  Roman  legions,  and  thus  a  million 
of  people  were  enclosed  in  the  city  walls.  These  were 
divided  into  two  warring  factions,  and  finally  into 
three,  butchering  one  another  while  endeavoring  to 
beat  back  the  terrible  enemy  outside.  The  siege  lasted 
from  early  spring-time  till  the  first  week  in  September, 
and  during  that  time  upwards  of  700,000  Jews,  men, 
women,  and  children,  are  said  to  have  perished  by 
every  conceivable  kind  of  death,  including  self-murder, 
child-murder,  starvation,  plague,  and  cannibalism,  the 
city  being  meantime  surrounded  by  a  circle  of  never 
ending  slaughter  in  the  struggle  between  the  regular 
combatants  on  either  side.  At  last  the  city  fell,  the 
Roman  eagles  were  placed  over  the  Temple,  the  pagan 
gods  were  adored  in  the  Holy  of  Holies,  and  the 
splendid  edifice,  the  glory  of  the  chosen  people,  one 
of  the  noblest  memorials  of  the  religious  sentiment  of 
the  human  race,  was  totally  destroyed.  Jerusalem  was 
razed  to  the  ground,  its  last  vestiges  being  de- 
molished during  the  next  century ;  the  plough  passed 
over  the  city  of  David  and  the  place  where  the 
name  of  the  Lord  had  been  honored  for  so  many  ages. 
Previous  to  the  siege,  and  for  the  sake  of  depriv- 
ing the  Jews  of  any  other  refuge  after  they  had  lost 
their  capital,  every  fortified  place  in  Palestine  had 


PROPHECY  OF  THE  END  FURTHER  ENFORCED.  595 

been  captured  and  garrisoned  by  the  Romans  or  totally 
destroyed.  The  end  was  the  dispersion,  utter  and 
perpetual,  of  the  remnant  of  the  people.  Hence  the 
picture  our  Saviour  draws  is  not  too  gloomy,  nor  is  it 
unworthy  of  being  selected  to  typify  the  final  calamities 
preceding  the  end  of  the  world  and  the  day  of  judg- 
ment. 

"But  woe  to  them  that  are  with  child,  and  give 
suck  in  those  days,  for  there  shall  be  great  distress 
in  the  land,  and  wrath  upon  this 
people.  And  they  shall  fall  by  the 
edge  of  the  sword,  and  shall  be  led 
away  captives  into  all  nations ;  and 
Jerusalem  shall  be  trodden  down  by 
the  Gentiles,  till  the  times  of  the 
nations  be  fulfilled." 

' '  But  pray  that  your  flight  be 
not  in  the  winter,  or  on  the  Sab- 
bath ;  for  there  shall  be  then  great 
tribulation,  such  as  hath  not  been 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world  un- 
til now,  neither  shall  be.  And  un- 
less those  days  had  been  shortened, 
no  flesh  should  be  saved  ;  but  for 
the  sake  of  the  elect  those  days  shall 
be  shortened." 

Amid  the  convulsions  of  the  Ro- 
man invasion  false  Christs,  history 
informs  us,  arose  to  incite  the  un- 
fortunate people  to  fresh  outbreaks 
or  to  vain  resistance.  Our  Saviour  plainly  foretells 
the  same  for  the  end  of  the  world. 

What  does  the  Master  mean  by  "the  sign  of  the 
Son  of  Man,"  unless  it  be  a  great  luminous  cross  ?  It 
will  be  resplendent  in  the  sky,  lighting  up  the  dark- 


Then  if  any  man  shall  say  to  you  :  Lo 
here  is  Christ,  or  there,  do  not  believe 
him.  For  there  shall  rise  false  Christs  and 
false  prophets,  and  shall  show  great  signs 
and  wonders,  insomuch  as  to  deceive  (if 
possible)  even  the  elect.  Behold  I  have  told 
it  you  beforehand.  If  therefore  they  shall 
say  to  you  :  Behold  he  is  in  the  desert, 
go  ye  not  out ;  Behold  he  is  in^the  closets, 
believe  it  not.  For  as  lightning  cometh 
out  of  the  east  and  appeareth  even  unto 
the  west,  so  shall  also  the  coming  of  the 
Son  of  Man  be.  Wheresoever  the  body 
shall  be,  there  shall  the  eagles  also  be 
gathered  together.  And  immediately  after 
the  tribulation  of  those  days  the  sun  shall 
be  darkened,  and  the  moon  shall  not  give 
her  light,  and  the  stars  shall  fall  from 
heaven,  and  the  powers  of  heaven  shall  be 
moved  and  upon  the  earth  distress  of  na- 
tions, by  reason  of  the  confusion  of  the 
roaring  of  the  sea  and  of  the  waves,  men 
withering  away  with  fear  and  expectation 
of  what  shall  come  upon  the  whole  world. 
And  then  shall  appear  the  sign  of  the  Son 
of  Man  in  heaven,  and  then  shall  all  the 
tribes  of  the  earth  mourn,  and  they  shall 
see  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  the  clouds 
of  heaven  with  much  power  and  majesty. 
And  he  shall  send  his  angels  with  a  trumpet 
and  a  great  voice  ;  and  they  shall  gather 
together  his  elect  from  the  four  winds,  from 
the  farthest  parts  of  the  heavens  to  the 
utmost  bounds  of  them. 


596  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

ened  heavens  with  the  victorious  standard  of  the 
Crucified,  a  sign  of  love,  a  sign  of  power.  When 
Christians  begin  any  act  of  religion  they  mark  them- 
selves with  the  sign  of  the  cross.  So  shall  Jesus  mark 
Himself  and  His  universe  as  He  opens  His  great 
court  for  the  world's  judgment. 

Many  learned  men  have  tried  reverently  to  fix  the 
future  date  of  this  last  act  in  the  drama  of  God  and 
Man,  but  in  vain.  Even  Jesus  Himself,  though  He 
must  have  known  it,  received  it  from  the  Father  as 
something  reserved  from  revelation:  "  But  of  that 
day  or  hour  no  man  knoweth,  neither  the  angels  in 
heaven,  nor  the  Son,  but  the  Father  alone." 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

PERSONAL  APPLICATION   OP   THE  VISION   OF  JUDG- 
MENT. 

Matt.  xxiv.  32—51;  Mark  xiii.  28—37;  Luke  xxi.  28—36. 

THE  Master's  application  of  His  prophecy 
to  the  judgment  of  every  single  soul  at  the 
point  of  death  is  directly  associated  with  His 
teaching  of  the  general  judgment,  being  here 
interjected  between  the  first  scene — the  destruc- 
tion of  the  present  material  world  together  with 
the  divine  heraldry  of  the  Great  Cross — and  the 
detailed  narrative  of  the  event  itself. 

"  But  when  these  things  begin  to  come  to 
^  pass,  look  up  and  lift  up  your  heads,  because 
your  redemption  is  at  hand.  And  He  spoke 
to  them  a  similitude :  see  the  fig-tree  and  all 
the  trees,  when  they  now  shoot  forth  their  fruit  you 
know  that  summer  is  nigh  :  so  you  also  when  you 
shall  see  these  things  come  to  pass,  know  that  the 


THE  VISION  OF  JUDGMEX7. 


597 


And  take  heed  to  yourselves  lest  perhaps 


Kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand.  Amen,  I  say  to  you, 
that  this  generation  shall  not  pass  away  till  all  these 
things  be  done.  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away, 
but  My  words  shall  not  pass  away." 

The  prophecy  would  therefore  be  fulfilled,  either 
in  reality  or  in  type,  by  the  ruin  of  the  race,  the 
city,  and  the  Temple  of  the  Jews  ;  many  of  His 
hearers  would  live  to  witness  this  personally.  As  a 
people,  the  generation  of  Abraham  should  survive, 
though  broken  and  scattered,  till 
the  end  of  the  world,  and  it  should 
then  behold  the  final  fulfilment. 

True  to  His  practical  mission,  the 
Saviour  of  men  now  enforces  the 
lesson  of  each  one's  personal  pre- 
paration for  death — a  summary  of 
all  the  woes  of  humanity,  the  meet- 
ing of  the  divine  Judge  and  the 
human  culprit  in  the  reckoning  be- 
tween personal  human  sin  and  per- 
sonal divine  justice. 

With  urgent  and  persistent  force 
the  Master  develops  the  lesson  of 
every  one's  personal  responsibility 
to  God;  not  His  mere  obligation  to 
observe  a  code  of  laws,  but  to  pre- 
pare to  stand-  face  to  face  with  the 
L,aw-maker.  "  Take  ye  heed,  watch 
and  pray,  for  ye  know  not  when  the  time  is,  even  as  a 
man  who,  going  into  a  far  country,  left  his  house  and 
gave  authority  to  his  servants  over  every  work,  and 
commanded  the  porter  to  watch.  Watch  ye  therefore 
(for  you  know  not  when  the  lord  of  the  house  cometh, 
at  even,  or  at  midnight,  or  at  the  cock-crowing,  or 
in  the  morning)  ;  lest  coming  on  a  sudden  he  find  you 


your  hearts  be  overcharged  with  surfeiting] 
and  drunkenness  and  the  cares  of  this  life, 
and  that  day  come  upon  you  suddenly.  For 
as  a  snare  s.iall  it  come  upon  all  that  sit 
upon  the  face  of  the  whole  earth.  Watch 
ye  therefore,  praying  at  all  times  that  you 
may  be  accounted  worthy  to  <  -cape  all 
these  things  that  are  to  come,  and  to  stand 
before  the  Son  of  Man.  And  as  in  the 
days  of  Noe  so  shall  also  the  con. ing  of 
the  Son  of  Man  be.  For  as  in  the  days  be- 
fore the  flood  they  were  eating  and  drink- 
ing, marrying  and  giving  in  marriage,  even 
till  that  day  in  which  Noe  entered  into  the 
ark  ;  and  they  knew  not  till  the  flood  came 
and  took  them  all  away  ;  so  also  shall  the 
coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  be.  Then  two 
shall  be  in  the  field ;  one  shall  be  taken 
and  one  shall  be  left.  Two  women  shall 
be  grinding  at  the  mill ;  one  shall  be 
taken,  the  other  shall  be  left.  Watch  ye 
therefore,  because  you  know  not  what  hour 
your  Lord  will  come.  But  this  know  ye, 
that  if  the  good  man  of  the  house  knew  at 
what  hour  the  thief  would  come,  he  would 
certainly  watch,  and  would  not  suffer  his 
house  to  be  broken  open.  Wherefore  be 
you  also  ready,  because  at  what  hour  you 
know  not  the  Son  of  Man  will  come. 


598  LIFE  OF  JESUS  ChRlST. 

sleeping.     And  what  I  say  to  you 
I  say  to  all:  Watch." 

He  goes  on  to  show  yet  more 
distinctly  that  every  man  must 
guard  his  heart  as  being  God's 
home,  and  his  thoughts  and  affec- 
tions as  God's  household  goods. 
"Who,  thinkest  thou,  is  a  faith- 
ful and  wise  servant,  whom  his 
lord  hath  appointed  over  his  fam- 
ily, to  give  them  meat  in  season  ? 
Blessed  is  that  servant  whom, 
when  his  lord  shall  come,  he  shall 
find  so  doing.  Amen,  I  say  to 
you,  he  shall  place  him  over  all 
his  goods.  But  if  that  evil  ser- 

« Two  women  shall  be  grinding  at  the  mill."      vant   shall   Say   in  his  heart  :      My 

lord  is  long  a-coming,  and  shall  begin  to  strike 
his  fellow-servants,  and  shall  eat  and  drink  with 
drunkards,  the  lord  of  that  servant  shall  come  in  a 
day  that  he  hopeth  not,  and  at  an  hour  that  he 
knoweth  not,  and  shall  separate  him,  and  appoint  his 
portion  with  the  hypocrites.  There  shall  be  weep- 
ing and  gnashing  of  teeth." 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE    WISE    AND    FOOLISH     VIRGINS. — FAITHFUL     AND 
SLOTHFUL  SERVANTS. 

Matt.  xxv.  1-30. 

AMID  the  awful  prophecy  of  the  end  of  the  city 
and  of  the  world,  the  Master,  as  we  have  already 
noticed,  scattered  the  good  seed  of  personal  warn- 
ing:. This  lesson  He  enforced  by  two  parables. 

EASTERN  HEAD-DRESS          *  V 

FOR  A  FESTIVAL.      One  was  the  drama  of   the  wise  and  foolish  vir- 


THE  WISE  AND  FOOLISH  VIRGINS. 


599 


Then  shall  the  kingdom  of  heaven  be 
like  to  ten  virgins,  who  taking  their  lamps 
went  out  to  meet  the  bridegroom  and  the 
bride.  And  five  of  them  were  foolish,  and 
five  wise.  But  the  five  foolish,  having 
taken  their  lamps,  did  not  take  oil  with 
them  :  But  the  wise  took  oil  in  their  ves- 
sels with  the  lamps.  And  the  bridegroom 
tarrying,  they  all  slumbered  and  slept. 
And  at  midnight  there  was  a  cry  made : 
Behold  the  bridegroom  cometh,  go  ye  forth 
to  meet  him.  Then  all  those  virgins  arose 
and  trimmed  their  lamps.  And  the  foolish 
said  to  the  wise  :  Give  us  of  your  oil,  for 
our  lamps  are  gone  out .  The  wise  answer- 
ed, saying  :  Lest  perhaps  there  be  not 
enough  for  us  and  for  you,  go  you  rather 
to  them  that  sell,  and  buy  for  yourselves. 
Now  whilst  they  went  to  buy,  the  bride- 
groom came  :  and  they  that  were  ready, 
went  in  with  him  to  the  marriage,  and  the 
door  was  shut.  But  at  last  came  also  the 
other  virgins,  saying  :  Lord,  Lord,  open  to 
us.  But  he  answering  said  :  Amen  I  say 
to  you,  I  know  you  not. 


gins.  It  was  based  upon  the  cere- 
monies and  festivities  of  a  Hebrew 
marriage.  Pure  wedlock  was  hon- 
ored by  this  race,  not  only  c.s  the 
highest  natural  condition  of  happi- 
ness, but  also  as  the  channel  for 
the  royal  blood  destined  in  the  ful- 
ness of  time  to  flow  in  tlie  veins 
of  the  Chosen  One.  In  associating 
His  lesson  of  spiritual  watchfulness 
with  the  most  interesting  event  in 
human  life — that  of  marriage — Jesus 
added  greatly  to  the  force  of  His 
teaching. 

We  see  at  a  glance  that  the 
lamp  of  the  virgins  is  faith  ;  and 
as  a  lamp  without  oil  is  useless,  and  sometimes 
worse  than  useless,  an  aggravation  of  misery  if  it 
happens  that  life  and  death  depend  upon  a  lighted 
lamp,  so  is  faith  worse  than  useless  when  it  lacks 
love.  Charity  is  to  faith  what  oil  is  to  a  lamp 
— charity  which  repents  for  sin  in  tender  sorrow, 
which  honors  the  Bridegroom's  voice  by  prompt  obe- 
dience, and  also  by  con- 
stant watchfulness  for  His 
coming.  Let  those  who  rest 
their  hope  of  heaven  on  the 
true  faith,  or  even  the  sanc- 
tity of  their  state  of  life,  or, 
again,  on  their  intimate 
companionship  with  fervent 
Christians, — let  all  nominal 
Catholics  take  this  parable 
as  a  warning.  L/ove  is  due 
to  the  Heavenly  Bridegroom, 


"  Give  us  of  your  oil,  for  our  lamps  are  gone  put*"* 


6oo 


Watch  ye  therefore,  because  you  know 
not  the  day  nor  the  hour.  For  even  as  a 
man  going  into  a  far  country  called  his 
servants  and  delivered  to  them  his  goods. 
And  to  one  he  gave  five  talents,  and  to  an- 
other two,  and  to  another  one,  to  every  one 
according  to  his  proper  ability,  and  imme- 
diately he  took  his  journey.  And  he  that 
had  received  the  five  talents,  went  his  way 
and  traded  with  the  same,  and  gained  other 
five.  And  in  like  manner  he  that  had  re- 
ceived the  two,  gained  other  two.  But  he 
that  had  received  the  one,  going  his  way 
digged  into  the  earth  and  hid  his  lord's 
money.  But  after  a  long  time  the  lord  of 
those  servants  came  and  reckoned  with 
them.  And  he  that  had  received  the  five 
talents,  coming  brought  other  five  talents, 
saying :  Lord,  thou  didst  deliver  to  me  five 
talents,  behold  1  have  gained  other  five 
over  and  above.  His  lord  said  to  him  : 
Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant !  be- 
cause thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few 
things,  I  will  place  thee  over  many  things  ; 
enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  lord.  And 
he  also  that  had  received  the  two  talents 
came  and  said  :  Lord,  thou  deliveredst  two 
talents  to  me,  behold  I  have  gained  other 
two.  His  lord  saith  to  him  :  Well  done, 
good  and  faithful  servant !  because  thou 
hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things  I  will 
place  thee  over  many  things  ;  enter  thou 
into  the  joy  of  thy  lord.  But  he  that  had 
received  the  one  talent  came  and  said : 
Lord,  I  know  that  thou  art  a  hard  man  ; 
thou  reapest  where  thou  hast  not  sown  and 
gatherest  where  thou  hast  not  strewed  ;  and 
being  afraid  I  went  and  hid  thy  talent  in  the 
earth  ;  behold  here  thou  hast  that  which  is 
thine.  And  his  lord  answering,  said  to 
him  :  Wicked  and  slothful  servant,  thou 
knewest  that  I  reap  where  I  sow  not,  and 
gather  where  I  have  not  strewed  !  Thou 
oughtest  therefore  to  have  committed  my 
money  to  the  bankers,  and  at  my  coming  I 
should  have  received  my  own  with  usury. 
Take  ye  away  therefore  the  talent  from 
him  and  give  it  him  that  hath  ten  talents. 
For  to  every  one  that  hath  shall  be  given, 
and  he  shall  abound,  but  from  him  that 
hath  not,  that  also  which  he  seemeth  to 
have  shall  be  taken  away.  And  the  un- 
profitable servant  cast  ye  out  into  the  ex- 
terior darkness;  there  shall  be  weeping 
and  gnashing  of  teeth. 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

and  He  will  have  it  or  He  will  de- 
mand justice.  When  He  comes 
He  will  choose  His  own  time  and 
place.  Nothing  but  the  Psalmist's 
preparation  will  content  Him  :  "  My 
heart  is  ready,  O  Lord,  my  heart  is 
ready  "  :  it  is  full  of  the  oil  of 
charity,  it  is  throbbing  with  love,  it 
chooses  Thee  in  preference  to  every- 
thing, it  watches  for  Thee  every  day 
and  hour ;  even  in  sleep  it  wratches, 
and  at  the  first  cry,  "Behold  the 
Bridegroom  cometh,"  it  trims  and 
lights  its  well- filled  lamp,  it  utters 
its  instinctive  greeting  of  love. 

Never  did  dramatist  set  forth  a 
more  moving  scene  than  Jesus  in 
the  shut  door  and  the  weeping 
sluggards  outside,  too  late  for  the 
wedding  feast,  listening  with  de- 
spairing hearts  to  the  voice  from 
within:  "Amen  I  say  to  you,  I 
know  you  not."  The  other  para- 
ble was,  substantially,  a  repetition 
of  that  of  the  ten  pounds,  given  on 
a  previous  occasion  to  a  much 
larger  and  a  less  select  audience 
(Luke  xix.  12). 


THE  LAST  JUDGMENT. 


601 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE   lyAST  JUDGMENT. 
Matt.  xxv.  31-46. 

How  much  is  literal  and  how  much 
figurative  in  the  scenes  of  the  L,ast  Judg- 
ment given  us  in  St.  Matthew's  Gospel  it 
is  not  possible  accurately  to  decide.  But, 
even  though  the  scenes  and  circum- 
stances and  the  terms  of  greeting  and  of 
reprobation  may  or  may  not  be  literal 
prophecies,  this  fact  is  literally  certain : 
"All  nations  shall  be  gathered  together 
before  Him,"  and  shall  be  publicly 
judged.  Also  is  this  other  fact  certain  : 
' '  the  condemned  shall  go  into  everlasting 
punishment,  but  the  just,  into  life  ever- 
lasting." 

These  stupendous  words  are  but  single  instances 
in  a  series  of  teaching  in  which  the  I,ord,  either  by 
His  own  words  or  those  of  His  inspired  interpreters, 
affirms  the  eternity  of  our  future  life, 
be  it  miserable  or  happy.  In  the  New 
Testament  the  unending  state  whether 
of  woe  or  bliss  hereafter  is  taught  near- 
ly seventy  times,  either  fate  often  pre- 
sented in  alternative— a  challenge  from 
divine  love  to  human  freedom  of  choice. 
Concerning  this  doctrine  there  is  no 
room  for  doubt ;  there  is  no  place  for 
questioning  the  meaning  of  Christ's 
words  ;  there  is  no  refuge  for  Christian 
faith  struggling  with  the  awful  dogma 
of  eternal  woe,  except  the  refuge  of  the 
Cross.  The  mystery  of  the  Cross,  "  Shall  separate  them  one  from  another." 


"  You  know  not  the  day  nor 
the  hour." 


602 


And  when  the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in 
his  majesty,  and  all  the  angels  with  him, 
then  shall  he  sit  upon  the  seat  of  his  majes- 
ty :  And  all  nations  shall  be  gathered  to- 
gether before  him,  and  he  shall  separate 
them  one  from  another,  as  the  shepherd 
separateth  the  sheep  from  the  goats  :  And 
he  shall  set  the  sheep  on  his  right  hand, 
but  the  goats  on  his  left.  Then  shall  the 
king  say  to  them  that  shall  be  on  his  right 
hand  :  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  pos- 
sess you  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world.  For  I 
was  hungry,  and  you  gave  me  to  eat :  I  was 
thirsty,  and  you  gave  me  to  drink  :  I  was  a 
stranger,  and  you  took  me  in  :  naked,  and 
you  covered  me  :  sick,  and  you  visited  me  : 
I  was  in  prison,  and  you  came  to  me.  Then 
shall  the  just  answer  him,  saying  :  Lord, 
when  did  we  see  thee  hungry,  and  fed 
thee  ;  thirsty,  and  gave  thee  drink  ?  And 
when  did  we  see  thee  a  stranger,  and  took 
thee  in  ?  or  naked,  and  covered  thee  ?  Or 
when  did  we  see  thee  sick  or  in  prison,  and 
came  to  thee  ?  And  the  king  answering, 
shall  say  to  them  :  Amen  I  say  to  you,  as 
long  as  you  did  it  to  one  of  these  my  least 
brethren,  you  did  it  to  me.  Then  he  shall 
say  to  them  also  that  shall  be  on  his  left 
hand  :  Depart  from  me,  you  cursed,  into 
everlasting  fire  which  was  prepared  for  the 
devil  and  his  angels.  For  I  was  hungry, 
and  you  gave  me  not  to  eat :  I  was  thirsty, 
and  you  gave  me  not  to  drink.  I  was  a 
stranger,  and  you  took  me  not  in  :  naked, 
and  you  covered  me  not :  sick  and  in  pris- 
on, and  you  did  not  visit  me  Then  they 
also  shall  answer  him,  saying  :  Lord,  when 
did  we  see  thee  hungry  or  thirsty,  or  a 
stranger,  or  naked,  or  sick,  or  in  prison, 
and  did  not  minister  to  thee  ?  Then  he 
shall  answer  them,  saying  :  Amen  I  say  to 
you,  as  long  as  you  did  it  not  to  one  of 
these  least,  neither  did  you  do  it  to  me. 
And  these  shall  go  into  everlasting  punish- 
ment :  but  the  just,  into  life  everlasting. 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

however,  is  deeper  than  that  of 
hell ;  its  revelation  of  divine  love  is 
more  baffling  to  human  scrutiny 
than  that  terrific  word  "Depart!  " 
Hence  it  was  precisely  as  the  Sav- 
iour was  preparing  to  ascend  the 
Cross  that  He  fully  disclosed  the 
terrors  of  the  judgment. 

One  might  dwell  for  many  pages 
on  the  scenes  painted  by  the  Mas- 
ter in  this  prophetic  picture.  Its 
study  has  formed  the  school  whose 
pupils*  have  filled  the  deserts  and 
the  cloisters  of  Christendom.  The 
judgment  anticipated  has  illumi- 
nated the  annals  of  every  state  of 
life  with  heroic  examples  of  the 
love  of  God  and  man.  L/ove  of 
man,  indeed.  For  Jesus,  who  com- 
mands faith  in  God  as  the  root  of 
all  virtue,  and  love  of  God  as  the 
life-sap  in  both  root  and  branch, 
yet  names  neither  faith  in  God  nor 
love  of  God  in  this  His  balance- 
sheet  of  eternal  reckoning.  It  is 
the  kindly  care  of  the  sick,  and  of 
the  hungry  and  shivering  poor,  pity 
for  the  dis- 


graced 

imprisoned,    these     are 
the  only  reasons  assign- 
ed  for   a    reward   of   unending 
bliss.     How  great  is  the  dignity 
of  the  kind  heart !     How  fruit- 
ful is  the  grace  of  Christ,  since 


JESUS  PREPARES  FOR  HIS  LAST  SUPPER.  603 

the  very  leaves  and  bark  of  this  tree,  the  lower 
grades  of  Christian  virtue,  nourish  the  souls  of 
men  unto  heavenly  vigor.  How  noble  is  our 
poor  humanity,  since  beneath  the  loathsome 
form  of  the  beggar,  and  the  guilty  shrinking 
of  the  common  criminal  in  the  jail,  Jesus  Christ 
reveals  His  own  divine  self!  These  poor  crea- 
tures are  not  merely  His  deputies  ;  they  are  of 
a  new  relationship  which  He  has  lovingly  in- 
vented, and  which  is  so  near  to  Him  that  He 
can  only  fitly  describe  it  as  personal  identity. 


"  And  all  the  angels 
with  Him." 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


JESUS    PREPARES     FOR    HIS    LAST    SUPPER,    AND    THE 
CHIEF    PRIESTS    MAKE    A    BARGAIN    WITH    JUDAS. 

Matt.  xxvi.  1—20;  Mark  xiv.  1-17  ;  Luke  xxii.  1-14.. 

"  Now  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread,  which  is 
called  the  Pasch,  was  at  hand."  This  is  otherwise 
called  the  Passover,  literally  expressing  the  destroy- 
ing angel's  passing  over  the  Hebrew  children  in 
Egypt  on  his  mission  of  death  to  all  the  first  born 
male  children  of  their  oppressors.  It  was  the  high- 
est feast  of  the  Jews  and  lasted  for  eight  days,  be- 
ginning on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  Hebrew  month 
Nisan,  which  was  the  fifteenth  day  after  the  first 
new  moon  following  the  spring  equinox.  It  was  \ 
a  sacrificial  festival,  but  yet  not  exclusively  re- 
served for  the  ministrations  of  the  Temple  and 
the  priesthood,  for  the  paschal  lam1)  was  offered 
in  each  household  by  the  Jewish  father  at  the 
head  of  his  family,  who  consumed  it  with  solemn 


was  in  prison 
ye  visited  me!" 


6o4 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST: 


ceremonies.  The  Passover  was  also  named  the  feast 
of  the  unleavened  bread,  that  being  the  only  kind 
eaten  during  the  whole  week. 

Jesus  knew  that   at   the   very   time   He   would   be 
celebrating  this  festival  affectionately  with  His  house- 
hold  of   Apostles,    the   household   and   synagogue   of 
Satan   would    meet   secretly    to   arrange   for   His   be- 
trayal   and    murder.     "He   said  to 
His  disciples :   You  know  that  after 
two   days   shall   be   the   Pasch,   and 
the  Son  of  Man  shall  be  delivered  up 
to  be  crucified.     Then  were  gathered 
together   the    chief   priests   and   the 
ancients  of  the  people  into  the  court 
of  the  High-Priest,  who  was    called  Caiphas, 
and  they  consulted   together   that   by  subtilty 
they  might  apprehend   Jesus    and  put  Him  to 
death." 

This  meeting,  though  it  embraced  the  Jew- 
ish authority  as  to  its  personnel,  was  not  an 
official  meeting  of  the  Sanhedrin :  it  was  a 
council  of  the  corrupter  fanatical  leaders. 
The  festival  day  named  among  them  answers  to 
Wednesday  in  our  Holy  Week,  so  that  this  con- 
sultation took  place  perhaps  on  the  morning  of  that 
day,  or  more  probably  the  previous  evening  after 
sunset.  The  conspirators  were  well  aware  that  our 
Saviour's  most  ardent  adherents  were  Galileans, 
a  bold  race  and  easily  stirred  to  revolt,  many  thou- 
sands of  whom  would  be  present  in  Jerusalem  for 
the  Passover,  a  solemnity  which  often  drew  a  million 
pilgrims  to  its  shrine.  The  cunning  of  the  enemies 
of  Jesus  was  equal  to  their  cruelty.  They  feared  the 
people,  and  so  they  withheld  the  stroke  of  death 
till  the  Thursday  and  Friday  following  the  great 


THE  CHIEF  PRIESTS  AND  JUDAS, 


605 


day  of  the  feast.  Perhaps  they  thought  for 
the  present  of  taking  only  remote  means  for 
His  destruction,  such  as  sounding  Pilate  and 
intriguing  with  him,  for  they  well  knew  that 
they  must  have  the  aid  of  the  Roman  gar- 
rison in  order  to  compass  His  death. 

An  unexpected  event  hastened  their  plans 
to  fulfilment,  so  that  the  crime  was  done  and 
the  end  finally  reached  before  the  approaching 
Sabbath.  This  event  was  the  treason  of  Judas. 

One  of  Christ's  Apostles  turned  traitor,  took 
the  initiative,  came  to  the  chief  priests  without 
solicitation  on  their  part  and  offered  to  deliver 
his  Master  into  their  hands.  His  terms  were  very  sim- 
ple :  money.  Various  words  of  Jesus  show  His  pre- 
vious knowledge  of  this  most  detestable  of  all  the 
crimes  ever  committed  by  that  fallen  humanity  which 
He  loved  so  well;  nevertheless  He  did  not  expel  the 
wretch  from  His  chosen  band :  He  would  try  to  save 
Him  to  the  very  end ;  He  would  set  an  amazing 
example  of  love's  unwearying  patience  ;  He  would 
respect  even  in  these  desperate  circumstances  the 
mysterious  dignity  of  man's  free  will.  But  the  last 
struggle  was  now  over  in  the  soul  of  Judas. 

Who  can  fully  understand  his  motives  ?  He  may 
have  lost  faith  in  the  Master's  Messiasship,  he  may 
have  expected  a  larger  sum  as  his  price  for  Jesus' 
blood  :  whatever  his  motives,  he  finally  took  counsel 
only  of  the  evil  one. 

Judas  was  the  only  one  of  the  Apostles  who  was 
not  a  Galilean,  coming,  as  is  generally  thought,  from 
Karioth  in  Judea,  a  town  situated  four  hours'  journey 
south-east  of  Hebron.  The  awful  crime  which  has 
placed  his  name  first  in  the  list  of  the  world's  crimi- 
nals, has  lifted  into  similar  prominence  the  dreadful 


And  they  were  glad." 


6o6 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


vice  of  avarice.  Yet  after  bargaining  with  the  greedy 
high-priest  he  could  get  no  more  than  the  legal  ex- 
change for  a  murdered  slave  (Exodus  xxi.  32), 
amounting  to  about  twenty  dollars  of  our  money.  Pos- 
sibly he  received  promises  of  support  or  favor  in  addi- 
tion to  this  sum  of  money,  or  of 
further  payments  later  on.  But  as 
it  turned  out  the  commutation  for 
killing  a  slave  was  the  highest  price 
the  betrayer  of  the  Jews'  Messias 
could  obtain  for  his  Master's  blood 
— an  insult  calmly  studied  out  by 
the  chief  priests  amid  their  hot 
passions  of  hate,  ambition,  and 
avarice.  An  additional  element  of 
horror  is  that  the  money  was  part  of 
the  public  funds,  drawn  from  the 
treasury  of  the  Temple.  Out  of  the 
rich  man's  noble  charity  or  vain  ostentation  and  out  of 
the  poor  widows'  mites — out  of  money  offered  to  support 
the  worship  of  God  the  Father,  was  the  betrayer  of  God 
the  Son  paid  for  his  treason.  Associated  with  the  love 
of  Jesus  for  our  wicked  race  is  the  love  of  Judas  tor 
money. 


Then  were  gathered  together  the  chief 
priests  and  the  ancients  of  the  people  into 
the  court  of  the  high-priest,  who  was  call- 
ed Caiphas,  and  they  consulted  together 
that  by  subtilty  they  might  apprehend  Jesus 
and  put  him  to  death.  But  they  said  : 
Not  on  the  festival-day,  lest  perhaps  there 
should  be  a  tumult  among  the  people.  And 
Satan  entered  into  Judas,  who  was  sur- 
named  Iscariot,  one  of  the  Twelve.  And 
he  went  and  discoursed  with  the  chief  priests 
and  the  magistrates  how  he  might  betray 
him  to  them:  and  [he]  said  to  them  :  What 
will  you  give  me,  and  I  will  deliver  him  to 
you  ?  And  they  were  glad,  and  covenant- 
ed to  give  him  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  And  he 
promised.  And  from  henceforth  he  sought 
opportunity  to  betray  him,  in  the  \bsence  of 
the  multitude. 


JESUS  CELEBRATES  THE  JEWISH  PASSOVER.  607 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
JESUS  CELEBRATES  THE  JEWISH  PASSOVER. 

Matt.  xxvi.  17-20  and  29 ;  Mark  xiv.  12-17  an<^  25» 
Luke  xxii.  7-18. 

THIS  solemn  banquet  of  thanksgiving,  in  which  the 
Hebrews  celebrated  their  deliverance  from  the  bond- 
age of  Egypt  and  commemorated  all  the  subsequent 
glory  of  their  elect  race,  was  in  the  present  case  the 
final  tribute  of  the  Messias  to  the  Mosaic  law. 
Solemnly,  His  heart  full  of  the  omens  of  His  approach- 
ing death,  the  Lamb  of  God  prepared  for  the  eating 
of  that  lamb  of  the  Passover  which  was  one  of  the 
most  conspicuous  types  of  Himself  and  of  His  mission 
of  salvation.  He  prepared  for  the  celebration  in  a 
miraculous  manner,  as  being  a  worthy  prelude  to  this 
solemn  occasion.  He  secretly  inspired  a  disciple 
living  in  the  city  to  get  ready  a  room  with  all 
the  proper  requisites,  including  the  lamb  itself,  roasted 
and  ready  for  eating. 

Jesus  and  His  Apostles  came  back  from  Bethany 
the  evening  corresponding  to  our  Holy  Thursday. 
The  narrative  of  what  happened,  blended  from  Mat- 
thew, Mark,  and  Luke,  is  as  follows:  "And  the 
first  day  of  the  unleavened  bread  came,  on  which  it 
was  necessary  that  the  pasch  should  be  killed.  And 
He  sent  Peter  and  John,  saying  :  Go,  and  prepare 
us  the  pasch,  that  we  may  eat.  But  they  said : 
Where  wilt  Thou  that  we  prepare  ?  But  He  said 
to  them  :  Behold  as  you  go  into  the  city  there  shall 
meet  you  a  man  carrying  a  pitcher  of  water ;  follow 
him  into  the  house  where  he  entereth.  And  you 
shall  say  to  the  good  man  of  the  house :  The  Master 
saith  to  thee,  My  time  is  near  at  hand;  I  will  keep 


6o8 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


the  pasch  at  thy  house.  Where  is  My  guest-cham- 
ber, where  I  may  eat  the  pasch  with  My  disciples  ? 
And  he  will  show  you  a  large  dining-room  furnished, 
and  there  prepare  ye  for  us.  And  the  disciples  went 
their  way,  and  came  into  the  city,  and  they  found 
as  He  had  told  them,  and  they  prepared  the  pasch. 
And  when  evening  was  come,  He  sat  down,  and  the 
twelve  Apostles  with  Him." 

The  paschal  lamb  used  by  our  Saviour  had  been 
killed  at  the  Temple,  according  to  the  Jewish  cus- 
tom, on  the  afternoon  prior  to  the  feast.  It  was 
brought  to  the  dining-room,  having  been  roasted, 
as  is  most  probable,  by  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  had 
engaged  to  provide  all  things  necessary  for  the  cere- 
mony. The  little  band  of  the 
Apostles,  twelve  in  number,  were 
like  the  twelve  original  tribes  of 
that  race  whose  children  they 
were,  and  whose  deliverance  from 
worse  than  Egyptian  bondage  they 
were  about  to  celebrate.  Jesus, 
presiding  as  father  of  the  family, 
observed  faithfully  the  prescrip- 
tions of  the  law  as  they  were  in- 
terpreted in  His  time,  very  pro- 
bably as  follows  :  As  the  opening  ceremony  of  the 
feast  He  drank  from  a  cup  of  wine,  which  He  then 
passed  to  His  Apostles,  all  offering  a  short  prayer  of 
thanksgiving  ;  and  this  was  followed  by  the  washing 
of  hands.  Next  they  ate  of  a  salad  of  bitter  herbs 
with  unleavened  bread,  in  memory  of  the  sufferings 
of  their  ancestors  during  their  slavery.  Then  followed 
a  sweet  aromatic  sauce,  typical  of  the  divine  favor 
which  had  always  protected  them,  and  after  this  the 
paschal  lamb  was  brought  in  and  placed  on  the  table. 


THE  PASCHAL  BREAD. 


JESUS  CELEBRATES  THE  JEWISH  PASSOVER.  609 

It  was  solemnly  blessed  by  the  bead  of  the  family, 
a  second  cup  of  wine  passed  around,  and  the  lamb 
divided  and  eaten.  This  was  followed  by  a  third  cup 
of  wine,  which  was  called  the  cup  of  blessing,  be- 
cause it  accompanied  the  final  thanksgiving.  During 
the  whole  banquet  Jesus  would  follow  the  custom  of 
His  people,  explaining  the  meaning  of  each  observance, 
and  leading  them  in  singing  psalms  of  praise,  such  as 
cxii.,  cxiii.,  cxix. 

Of  the  Passover  banquet  itself  the  Evangelists  have 
given  us  but  the  briefest  account.  But  they  tell 
us  of  two  things  which  Jesus  said,  which  in  their 
deep  tones  of  love  and  sorrowful  farewell  indicate 
how  pathetic  was  the  whole  ceremony.  One  of  these 
utterances  was  as  follows  :  ' '  With  desire  I  have  desired 
to  eat  this  pasch  with  you  before  I  suffer.  For  I 
say  to  you,  that  from  this  time  I  will  not  eat  it  till 
it  be  fulfilled  in  the  Kingdom  of  God."  Herein 
He  spoke  of  His  crucifixion,  in  which  was  fulfilled 
and  finally  completed  all  the  prophetical  significance 
of  the  lamb  slain  and  eaten  as  the  end  of  exile,  and 
of  the  passing  over  by  the  angel  of  destruction  of 
all  souls  sprinkled  with  His  blood.  The  second  re- 
corded speech  of  our  Saviour  is  what  He  said  when 
passing  to  His  Apostles  the  cup  which  opened  the 
feast.  "And  having  taken  the  chalice,  He  gave 
thanks  and  said :  Take  and  divide  it  among  you. 
For  I  say  to  you  that  I  will  not  drink  of  the  fruit 
of  the  vine  till  the  Kingdom  of  God  come."  Both  of 
ihese  utterances  mean  the  same  thing — the  abroga- 
tion of  the  ancient  rite,  and  the  substitution  in  its 
stead  of  the  new  rites  and  observances  of  the  Church 
of  Christ.  The  foremost  of  these  is  the  Eucharist,  the 
.mysterious  banquet  of  Christ's  own  body  and  blood. 
This  He  was  going  to  institute  before  they  finished 


6io  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

the  evening,  setting  it  in  the  place  of  highest  dignity 
in  the  Church's  worship.  Jesus  thus  performed  His 
last  act  of  Jewish  ritual  observance,  ate  His  last  oas- 
chal  lamb,  and  drank  His  last  paschal  cup.* 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

JESUS  WASHES  HIS  DISCIPLES'    FEET. 
John  xiii.  1-20. 

IF  little  is  said  by  the  Evangelists  concerning 
the  Jewish  Passover  celebrated  by  Christ  and  His 
Apostles,  a  very  full  account  is  given  of  what  oc- 
curred after  it  was  over,  events  of  supreme  inter- 
est to  the  human  race. 

The  Holy  Spirit  reserved  to  John,  the  latest 
Evangelist,  the  beloved  disciple,  and  the  chief  ex- 
ponent of  our  Saviour's  love,  the  description  of  the 
washing  of  the  disciples'  feet.  What  a  spectacle !  the 
Son  of  God  stooping  down  and  washing  and  wiping 
and  kissing  the  feet  of  these  rough  men !  I,ove  is 

*  St.  Luke's  account  of  the  celebration  gives  the  whole  of  the  Saviour's 
solemn  announcement  of  His  farewell  to  the  Mosaic  rites  :  "  I  say  to  you, 
that  from  this  time  I  will  net  eat  [the  paschal  lamb]  till  it  be  fulfilled  in 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  And  having  taken  the  chalice,  He  gave  thanks  and 
said  :  Take  and  divide  it  among  you.  For  I  say  to  you  that  I  will  not 
drink  of  the  fruit  of  the  vine  till  the  Kingdom  of  God  come."  This  Evan- 
gelist thus  gives  the  twofold  farewell  of  our  Saviour  to  the  Mosaic  law, 
and  puts  it  in  its  exact  place  right  after  the  paschal  supper.  St.  Matthew 
and  St.  Mark  omit  His  farewell  to  the  paschal  lamb,  giving  only  His  refer- 
ence to  "the  fruit  of  the  vine,"  the  paschal  cup  ;  and  they  place  the  words 
after  their  account  of  the  Eucharistic  supper.  St.  Luke's  narrative  is  thus 
the  fuller  and  more  careful  one,  and  by  its  union  of  the  Saviour's  reference  to 
the  paschal  lamb  with  that  to  the  paschal  cup  we  are  made  certain  that  this 
Evangelist's  account  gives  this  utterance  its  proper  place,  which  was  not 
after  the  Eucharistic  supper.  The  other  two  Evangelists  gave  the  Mas- 
ter's reference  to  "the  fruit  of  the  vine  "  at  the  end  of  their  narrative  of 
the  events  of  the  evening  as  a  sort  of  addendum.  The  words  "the 
fruit  of  the  vine  "  could  not  have  referred  to  the  Eucharistic  cup. 


JESUS  WASHES  HIS  DISCIPLES'  FEET. 


611 


sometimes  fond  of  making  public  exhibitions  of  its 
interior  affection.  It  can  do  this  without  risk  of 
vanity ;  for  it  glories  too  much  in  the  applause  of  its 
beloved  to  be  moved  from  its  loyalty  by  the  applause 
of  standers-by.  Hence  our  Saviour's 
insistence  on  the  public  ceremony 
of  washing  His  disciples'  feet. 

We  are  struck  with  the  contrast 
between  the  Redeemer's  love  and 
the  traitor's  baseness,  as  carefully 
brought  out  by  St.  John,  for  it  is  en- 
tirely certain  that  Judas  was  pre- 
sent; he  was  proof  against  the  re- 
proachful glances  and  the  caresses, 
perhaps  the  whispered  appeal,  of  the 
Master  incident  to  the  washing  of 
his  feet.  We  notice,  too,  the  singu- 
lar aptness  of  the  Master's  quota- 
tion from  the  fortieth  psalm,  as  if  on 
washing  the  heel  of  Judas  He  had 
physically  felt  it  spurning  and  kick- 
ing Him  in  the  brutal  assault  at- 
tending His  betrayal  ai:d  arrest  in 
the  later  hours  of  that  same  night. 

The  example  of  humility  here 
given,  emphasized  by  St.  John  in 
the  words,  ' '  knowing  that  the  Father 
had  given  Him  all  things  into  His 
hands,  and  that  He  came  from  God 
and  goeth  to  God, ' '  and  yet  cleans  the 
feet  of  twelve  dull  peasants,  is  one 
of  the  most  moving  in  all  the  Gos- 
pel. It  struck  deep  into  the  soul  of 
Peter,  whose  hasty  nature  (soon  to 
be  tamed  by  a  rude  lesson)  revolted 


Before  the  festival  day  of  the  pasch,  Jesus 
knowing  that  his  hour  was  come,  that  he 
should  pass  out  of  this  world  to  the  Fath- 
er :  having  loved  his  own  who  were  in  the 
world,  he  loved  them  unto  the  end.  And 
when  supper  was  done  (the  devil  having 
now  put  into  the  heart  of  Judas  Iscariot, 
the  son  of  Simon,  to  betray  him;,  know- 
ing that  che  Father  had  given  him  all 
things  into  his  hands,  and  that  he  came 
from  God,  and  goeth  to  God  :  he  riseth 
from  supper,  and  layeth  aside  his  gar- 
ments, and  having  taken  a  towel,  girded 
himself.  After  that,  he  putteth  water  into 
a  basin,  and  Legan  to  wash  the  feet  of 
his  disciples,  and  to  wipe  them  with  the 
towel  wherewith  he  was  girded.  He 
cometh  therefore  to  Simon  Peter.  And 
Peter  said  to  him :  Lord,  dost  thou  wash 
my  feet  ?  Jesus  answered,  and  said  to 
him  :  What  I  do,  thou  knowest  not  now, 
but  thou  shalt  know  hereafter.  Peter  said 
to  him  :  Thou  shalt  never  wash  my  feet : 
Jesus  answered  him :  If  I  wash  thee  not, 
thou  shalt  have  no  part  with  me.  Simon 
Peter  saith  to  him  :  Lord,  not  only  my  feet, 
but  also  my  hands  and  my  head.  Jesus 
saith  to  him  :  He  that  is  washed,  needeth 
not  but  to  wash  his  feet,  but  is  clean  wholly. 
And  you  are  clean,  but  not  all.  For  he 
knew  who  he  Was  that  would  betray  him  ; 
therefore  he  said  :  You  are  not  all  clean. 
Then  after  he  had  washed  their  feet,  and 
taken  his  garments,  being  sat  down  again, 
he  said  to  them  :  Know  you  what  I  have 
done  to  you  ?  You  call  me  Master, 
and  Lord  :  and  you  say  well,  for  so  I  am. 
If  then  I,  being  your  Lord  and  Master, 
have  washed  your  feet ;  you  also  ought 
to  wash  one  another's  feet.  For  I  have 
given  you  an  example,  that  as  I  have  done 
to  you,  so  you  do  also.  Amen,  amen,  I 
say  to  you  :  The  servant  is  not  greater  than 
his  lord  :  neither  is  ihe  apostle  greater  than 
he  that  sent  him.  If  you  know  these  things, 
you  shall  be  blessed  if  you  do  them.  I 
speak  not  of  you  all :  I  know  whom  I  have 
chosen  :  but  that  the  scripture  may  be  ful- 
filled, He  that  eateth  bread  with  me,  shall 
lift  up  his  heel  against  me. 


612 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


1  Thou  shalt  never 
wash  my  feet." 


against  such  an  indignity.  He  was  rebuked  :  "  If  I 
wash  thee  not,  thou  shalt  have  no  part  with  Me."  The 
discipleship  is  conferred  by  Christ,  not  assumed  by 
Peter  ;  and  it  is  given  by  the  ritual  of  Christ's  amazing 
humility.  The  Master  of  life  and  death,  of  earth  and 
heaven,  lays  off  His  dignity  as  one  lays  off  his  garments; 
He  takes  on  the  lowliness  of  humanity  as  He  girds  Him- 
self with  an  apron  like  a  waiter  serving  at  table  ;  He  as- 
sumes the  lowliest  offices  of  brotherly  love.  It  is  thus 
that  discipleship  is  conferred  in  the  Christian  religion, 
for  the  rule  and  spirit  of  the  humility  of  Jesus  is  made 
perpetual.  "  I  have  given  you  an  example,  that  as  I 
have  done  to  you,  so  you  do  also.  Amen,  Amen,  I  say 
to  you,  the  servant  is  not  greater  than  his  lord,  neither 
is  the  Apostle  greater  than  he  that  sent  him."* 

The  concluding  words  of  Jesus,  as  given  in  St. 
John,  nineteenth  and  twentieth  verses,  are  instructive : 
' '  At  present  I  tell  you  before  it  [the  betrayal]  come 
to  pass,  that  when  it  shall  come  to  pass  you  may 
believe  that  I  am  He."  The  prophet  here  speaks, 
and  reveals  the  purpose  of  His  prophecy — the  comfort 
of  His  disciples  in  the  awful  trial  now  near  at  hand. 
But  what  did  He  mean  by  adding  the  succeeding 
words  of  mission  ?  Perhaps  they  were  to  renew  the 
Apostles'  sense  of  their  relation  to  Him  as  His  author- 
ized messengers,  rudely  shaken  by  His  revelation  of 
the  treason  of  Judas.  "  Amen,  amen,  I  say  to  you, 
he  that  receiveth  whomsoever  I  send,  receiveth  Me; 
and  he  that  receiveth  Me,  receiveth  Him  that  sent  Me." 

*  The  incident  of  the  washing  of  the  disciples'  feet,  the  manner  of  its 
narration,  and  the  injunction  of  its  apparently  literal  imitation  as  one  of  the 
ceremonies  of  Christ's  religion,  has  caused  some  of  the  Protestant  sects  to 
perpetuate  it  as  a  sort  of  sacrament.  This  should  be  a  warning  against  un- 
authorized interpretation  of  Scripture.  No  sacrament  was  instituted  by 
Jesus  in  this  function,  nor  any  obligation  imposed  for  its  continuance,  as 
is  proved  by  Apostolic  tradition. 


"tSlTI,  LQRDt"  613 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

"  IS   IT   I,    IvORD?" 

Matt.  xxvi.  21-25  >'  Mark  xiv.  18-21 ;  Luke  xxii.  21-23; 
John  xiii.  21—32. 

NEXT  followed  the  exciting  scene  of  the  accusa- 
tion of  treason.  Jesus  threw  it  out  among  the  Apos- 
tles for  the  purpose  of  saving  Judas,  even  though  it 
tortured  the  sensibilities  of  His  eleven  loyal  followers. 
It  was  a  reprimand  administered  publicly,  yet  capable 
of  being  taken  only  privately,  for  He  never  allowed 
them  to  know  whom  He  meant.  The  outward  calm- 
ness of  the  Redeemer  was  in  vivid  contrast  with  the 
excitement  of  the  Apostles,  for  His  trouble  was  "in 
spirit,"  far  beneath  the  surface  which  remained  un- 
ruffled. "When  Jesus  had  said  these  things  He  was 
troubled  in  spirit,  and  whilst  they  were  eating  He 
said  :  Amen,  I  say  to  you,  that  one  of  you  is  about 
to  betray  Me."  Instantly  there  fell  utter  silence; 
quick  looks  of  suspicion,  of  inquiry,  of  chagrin  at 
the  bare  thought  of  the  great  crime.  ' '  The  disciples 
therefore  looked  one  upon  another,  doubting  of  whom 
He  spoke ;  and  they  being  very 
much  troubled,  began  every  one  to 
say:  Is  it  I,  Lord?  " 


Now,  there  was  deep  consolation 
to  our  Lord  in  this  demand,  for,  al- 
though its  form  in  the  original 
Greek  implies  denial,  yet  it  was  a 
sign  of  humility.  They  were  ready, 
each  and  all,  to  believe  themselves 
open  to  temptation  ;  they  might  mis- 
trust even  their  long-tried  love  for 
Him ;  the  patient  Master  who  had 


When  Jesus  had  said  these  things,  he  was 
troubled  in  spirit :  and  he  testified,  and 
said  :  Amen,  amen,  I  say  to  you,  one  of 
you  shall  betray  me.  The  disciples  there- 
fore looked  one  upon  another,  doubting  of 
whom  he  spoke.  Now  there  was  leaning 
on  Jesus'  bosom  one  of  his  disciples  whom 
Jesus  loved.  Simon  Peter  therefore  beck- 
oned to  him,  and  said  to  him  :  Who  is  it 
of  whom  he  speaketh  ?  He  therefore  lean- 
ing on  the  breast  of  Jesus  saith  to  him  : 
Lord,  who  is  it  ?  Jesus  answered :  He  it  is 
to  whom  I  shall  reach  bread  dipped.  And 
when  he  had  dipped  the  bread,  he  gave  it 
to  Judas  Iscariot,  the  sm  of  Simon.  And 
after  the  morsel,  Satan  entered  into  him. 
And  Jesus  said  to  him  :  That  which  thou 
dost,  do  quickly. 


614  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

said:  "  I,earn  of  Me  that  I  am  meek  and  humble 
of  heart,"  had  not  taught  in  vain.  But  yet  His  an- 
swer was  baffling.  He  immediately  showed  that  His 
aim  was  to  admonish'  all  the  innocent  for  the  sake 
of  the  one  who  alone  was  guilty.  "  Behold  the  hand 
of  him  that  betray eth  Me,  is  with  Me  on  the  table 
— one  of  the  twelve  who  dippeth  with  Me  his  hand 
in  the  dish,  he  shall  betray  Me."  All  were  at  table 
with  Him,  all  were  dipping  in  the  dish  with  Him, 
all  were  warned  and  no  one  specially  pointed  out. 
But  the  words  that  follow  are  like  the  voice  of 
doomsday.  "The  Son  of  Man  indeed  goeth,  as  it 
is  written  of  Him,  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the 
Son  of  Man  shall  be  betrayed ;  it  were  better  for 
him,  if  that  man  had  not  been  born." 

This  showed  what  He  meant  by  the  word  betrayal ; 
it  was  not  any  ordinary  disloyalty,  but  the  deliberate 
handing  over  of  Jesus  to  His  enemies  to  be  slain. 
Judas  may  have  been  stupefied  by  the  accusation, 
by  the  glance  of  his  Master's  eye,  the  clamor  of  his 
conscience  within  and  that  of  his  brethren  without. 
But  now  he  found  words  and  an  opportunity  to  ask, 
"Is  it  I,  Rabbi?"  It  was  done  secretly,  and  it  was 
lost  vo  the  eleven  in  their  own  confused  talk  over 
the  terrible  words  Jesus  had  spoken.  Nor  did  they 
catch  the  whispered  words  of  the  answer  :  "  He  saith 
to  him,  Thou  hast  said  it." 

But  Peter,  always  forward  and  persistent,  would 
not  rest  content  with  his  Master's  answer  to  their 
general  inquiry.  Leaning  over  towards  John,  whom 
Jesus  had  placed  beside  Him  and  whose  head  He  had 
drawn  to  His  bosom,  He  undertook  through  him  to 
learn  who  the  traitor  was.  "  Now  there  was  leaning 
on  Jesus'  bosom,  one  of  His  disciples  whom  Jesus 
loved.  Simon  Peter  therefore  beckoned  to  him  and 


IS  IT  f,  LOKDf" 


615 


said  to  him:  Who  is  it  of  whom  He  speaketh  ? 
He-  therefore,  leaning  on  the  breast  of  Jesus,  saith 
to  Him  :  Lord,  who  is  it?  Jesus  answered:  He  it 
is  to  whom  I  shall  reach  bread  dipped.  And  when 
lie  had  dipped  the  bread  He  gave  it  to  Judas  Is- 
cariot,  the  son  of  Simon."  It  would  seem  from 
this  that  Peter  and  John  learned  the  exact  truth 
about  Judas — that  at  least  John  did.  Yet  what  fol- 
lows indicates  that  the  amazement  and  confusion 
of  mind  which  reigned  among  them  all  hindered 
the  two  Apostles  from  understanding  their  Master 
fully. 

But  Judas  was  now  aroused  to  the  need  of  im- 
mediate betrayal ;  his  purpose  was  known  and  was 
revealed.  "And  after  the  morsel  Satan  entered  into 
him."  His  final  resolve  was  taken,  his  new  master, 
the  Evil  One,  assumed  control.  The  Redeemer  read 
him  through  and  through,  and  as  if  to  echo  the  be- 
trayer's thoughts  He  said  to  him  :  "  That  which  thou 
dost  do  quickly.  Now  no  man  at  the  table  knew  to 
what  purpose  He  said  this  unto  him.  For  some 
thought,  because  Judas  had  the  purse,  that  Jesus 
had  said  to  him,  Buy  those  things  which  we  have 
need  of  for  the  festival  day,  or  that  he  should  give 
something  to  the  poor.  He  therefore  having  received 
the  morsel,  went  out  immediately.  And  it  was 
night."  This  looks  as  if  the  final  words  of  Jesus  to 
the  traitor  were  spoken  aloud  after  a  whispered  col- 
loquy in  which  a  last  appeal  to  the  unhappy  wretch 
was  made  and  rejected.  Jesus  had  managed  to  shield 
him  from  the  fury  of  his  brethren,  had  dealt  with 
him  alone  in  striving  to  turn  him  from  his  fell  pur- 
pose, and  yet  He  had  spoken  to  them  all  of  this  dread- 
ful blood-guiltiness.  He  had  used  the  crime  of  one 
to  increase  the  humility  of  all  the  others. 


Satan  entered  into 
him." 


616  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Judas  hurried  away  into  the  darkness  ot  that  fate- 
ful night,  whose  threatening  forms  and  accusing  voices 
were  to  haunt  him  for  ever. 

He  was  not  present  at  the  institution  of  the 
Eucharist ;  at  least  such  seems  the  most  satisfactory 
adjustment  of  the  various  accounts  of  the  four  Evan- 
gelists, though  many  great  names  are  affixed  to  the 
contrary  opinion.  The  question  will  never  be  finally 
settled.  But  the  traitor  went  away,  according  to  St. 
John,  after  receiving  "  the  morsel,"  which  certainly 
was  not  the  Holy  Communion.  Place  this  account 
given  by  St.  John  between  the  twenty-fifth  and 
twenty-sixth  verses  of  St.  Matthew's  narrative  in  his 
twenty-sixth  chapter,  and  the  chronology  of  these 
two  Apostles,  who  were  eye-witnesses,  is  perfectly 
harmonized,  and  is  a  better  guide  than  that  of  St. 
L,uke,  whose  statement  of  the  entire  incident  of  Jesus 
reproaching  Judas  is  extremely  brief. 

And  this  accords  with  the  words  of  Jesus  spoken 
immediately  after  the  traitor's  departure.  "  When 
therefore  he  was  gone  out,  Jesus  said  :  Now  is  the 
Son  of  Man  glorified,  and  God  is  glorified  in  Him  ; 
God  also  will  glorify  Him  in  Himself;  and  immediate- 
ly will  He  glorify  Him."  For  what  was  the  glory 
of  Jesus  but  His  sacrifice  for  our  salvation  upon  the 
altar  of  the  cross,  a  triumph  which  every  step  of 
Judas  brought  nearer  to  its  fulfilment  ?  And  what 
is  the  perennial  glory  of  Jesus  but  the  perpetuation  of 
His  death  and  resurrection  upon  the  Calvary  of  our 
altars,  which  He  was  about  to  establish  by  the  in- 
stitution of  the  Eucharist  ? 


THE  LAST  DISCOURSE.  617 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  LAST  DISCOURSE. — THE 
DENIAL  OF  PETER  FORETOLD. — STRIFE  FOR  PRE- 
EMINENCE. 

Luke  xxii.  24-30 ;  John   xiii.  33-38. 

ST,  JOHN,  in  his  account  of  our  Saviour's  last  night 
with  His  disciples,  omits  the  institution  of  the  Holy 
Communion,  because  it  is  related  by  the  three  other 
Evangelists,  and,  as  he  must  certainly  have  known, 
very  fully  described  by  St.  Paul  (I.  Cor.  xi.) 
Furthermore,  he  had  himself  in  his  sixth  chapter 
given  the  Redeemer's  prophecy  of  it  containing  His 
solemn  definition  of  the  dogma  of  the  Real  Presence. 
St.  John  is  very  full,  however,  in  his  account  of 
our  Saviour's  last  discourse  and  the  conversations 
with  the  Apostles  scattered  through  it.  This  opens 
with  the  last  eight  verses  of  his  thirteenth  chapter 
and  occupies  him  through  the  three  that  follow  it ; 
finally  he  devotes  the  seventeenth  chapter  to  the 
prayer  of  Jesus.  This  whole  section  of  St.  John's 
Gospel,  embracing  more  than  four  chapters,  is  a  rich 
treasury  of  heavenly  teaching,  and  the  prayer  of 
Jesus  is  the  most  powerful  plea  to  the  Father  for 
brotherly  love  and  divine  unity  among  men  that  He 
ever  uttered.  That  part  of  St.  Luke's  twenty- second 
chapter  between  the  twenty-fourth  and  thirtj'-eighth 
verses,  is  placed  conjecturally  near  the  opening  of 
our  Lord's  discourse. 

An  interesting  question  never  settled,  and  never 
likely  to  be,  is,  what  relation  in  point  of  time  has  all 
this  discoursing  to  the  institution  of  the  Eucharist? 
Was  it  all  done  beforehand?  Evidently  not,  for  at 
one  point  our  Lord  says,  "Arise,  let  us  go  hence." 


618  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Did  it  all  follow  the  Eucharist?  Some  commentators 
say  yes  and  others  no.  These  last  place  the  insti- 
tution of  the  Holy  Communion  immediately  after  the 
departure  indicated  by  the  words,  "  Let  us  go  hence," 
which  meant,  they  surmise,  only  adjourning  to  an- 
other room  prepared  expressly  for  the  Kucharistic 
Supper.  But  many  suppose  that  the  Eucharist  was 
instituted  immediately  after  the  celebration  of  the 
Jewish  Passover,  and  that  the  discourse  followed : 
part  of  it  given  on  the  spot  and  the  remainder  on  the 
way  to  Mount  Olivet,  or  after  arriving  there.  But 
it  is,  in  our  opinion,  quite  probable  that  the  first  part, 
that  preceding  "  Arise,  let  us  go  hence,"  was  pre- 
liminary to  the  Eucharistic  Supper,  and  with  this 
portion  of  it  we  join  the  verses  from  St.  Luke  above 
referred  to. 

After  our  Saviour  had  said — as  if  communing 
with  Himself  or  speaking  to  His  Father — "God  will 
also  glorify  [the  Son  of  Man]  in  Himself;  and  im- 
mediately will  He  glorify  Him,"  He  turned  most 
affectionately  to  His  Apostles.  "Little  children,"  He 
exclaimed,  "yet  a  little  while  I  am  with  you.  You 
shall  seek  Me,  and  as  I  said  to  the  Jews,  Whither  I 
go,  you  cannot  come:  so  I  say  to  you  now."  This 
sounded  plaintively  to  the  disciples :  it  was  like  a 
father's  last  address  to  his  children,  a  death-bed  ad- 
monition. The  substance  of  the  message  followed : 
"  A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you,  that  you  love 
one  another;  as  I  have  loved  you,  that  you  also  love 
one  another."  Here,  then,  is  THE  LAW.  Love  has 
entered  the  hall  of  divine  legislation  and  has  abolished 
all  other  law,  repealed  it  all  and  enacted  itself  as  the 
one  precept,  the  new  law,  of  the  new  Kingdom.  And 
what  love?  Brotherly  love.  And  in  what  measure? 
The  King's  measure,  Jesus  Christ's  measure.  He 


THE  DENIAL  OF  PETER  FORETOLD. 


619 


loves  us  as  His  Father  loves  Him  ; 
He  loves  us  as  He  loves  His  own 
life  ;  and  more,  for  He  gave  more 
than  His  life  for  His  beloved ;  He 
gave  His  peace  of  mind,  His  fair 
fame,  His  kingship  over  His  own 
people  ;  He  gave  everything.  And 
it  is  after  this  pattern  that  He  would 
have  us  love  our  fellow-men.  He 
insists  on  this  with  a  lover's  im- 
patience. He  selects  it  as  the  pub- 
lic and  private  test  of  discipleship, 
superior  to  faith,  to  obedience,  or 
to  martyrdom.  ' '  By  this  shall  all 
men  know  that  you  are  My  disci- 
ples, if  you  have  love  one  for  an- 
other." 

But  Peter  had  been  offended  by 
his  Master's  saying,  "Whither  I 
go  you  cannot  come,"  and  he  now 
reverted  to  it :  "  Simon  Peter  saith 
to  Him :  Lord,  whither  goest 
Thou?"  Jesus  insisted:  "  Whither  I  go  thou  canst 
not  follow  Me  now,  but  thou  shalt  follow  hereafter. 
Peter  saith  to  Him :  Why  cannot  I  follow  Thee  now  ? 
I  will  lay  down  my  life  for  Thee."  It  was  thus 
that  Peter  brought  on  himself  the  prophecy  of  his 
fall.  The  Redeemer,  as  if  under  provocation,  ex- 
posed the  boaster's  weakness.  He  did  it  very  point- 
edly, repeating,  and  almost  derisively,  the  vaunt 
of  His  follower  that  he  would  be  true  unto  death. 
' '  Jesus  answered  him :  Wilt  thou  lay  down  thy  life 
for  Me?  Amen,  amen,  I  say  to  thee,  the  cock  shall 
not  crow  till  thou  deny  Me  thrice." 

Nor  was  our  Saviour  contented  with   the   rest  of 


If  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men,  and 
of  angels,  and  have  not  charity,  I  am  be- 
come as  sounding  brass  or  a  tinkling  cym- 
bal. And  if  I  should  have  prophecy,  and 
should  know  all  mysteries,  and  all  knowl- 
edge, and  if  I  should  have  all  faith,  so  that 
I  could  remove  mountains  and  have  not 
charity,  I  am  nothing.  And  if  I  should 
distribute  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor, 
and  if  I  should  deliver  my  body  to  be 
burned,  and  have  not  charity,  it  profiteth 
me  nothing.  Charity  is  patient,  is  kind : 
charity  envieth  not,  dealeth  not  perversely  : 
is  not  puffed  up,  is  not  ambitious,  seeketh 
not  her  own,  is  not  provoked  to  anger, 
thinketh  no  evil,  rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity, 
but  rejoiceth  with  the  truth :  beareth  all 
things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all 
things,  endureth  all  things.  Charity  never 
falleth  away  :  whether  prophecies  shall  be 
made  void,  or  tongues  shall  cease,  or 
knowledge  shall  be  destroyed.  For  we 
know  in  part,  and  we  prophesy  in  part. 
But  when  that  which  is  perfect  is  come, 
that  which  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away. 
When  I  was  a  child,  I  spoke  as  a  child,  I 
understood  as  a  child,  I  thought  as  a  child. 
But  when  I  became  a  man,  I  put  away  the 
things  of  a  child  We  see  now  through  a 
glass  in  a  dark  manner  :  but  then  face  to 
face.  Now  I  know  in  part :  but  then  I 
shall  know  even  as  I  am  known.  And 
now  there  remain,  faith,  hope,  charity, 
these  three :  but  the  greater  of  these  is 
charity. 


620  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

His  Apostles.  They  were,  in  fact,  no  better  than  a 
set  of  raw  recruits,  indicating,  as  far  as  their  natural 
gifts  went,  little  of  that  wondrous  heroism  which  fol- 
lowed their  receiving  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They  seem 
to  have  been  continually  arguing  about  precedence, 
and  often  very  hotly,  so  that  the  word  strife  describes 
their  attitude.  Even  now,  while  yet  fresh  from  the  les- 
sons of  the  feet-washing,  they  struggled  for  supremacy. 
Therefore  their  Master  set  before  them  the  spirit  of 
the  Gentile  world  and  taught  them  how  to  reverse 
its  maxims:  "And  there  also  arose  a  strife  amongst 
them,  which  of  them  should  seem  to  be  greater ;  and 
He  said  to  them  :  The  kings  of  the  Gentiles  lord  it 
over  them,  and  they  that  have  power  over  them  are 
called  beneficent.  But  you  not  so,  but  he  that  is 
the  greater  among  you,  let  him  be  as  the  least,  and 
he  that  is  the  leader  as  he  that  serveth."  I,et  us 
appreciate  the  motive  which  our  Lord  assigns  for  this 
humility:  none  other  than  His  own  example.  He 
does  not  offer  other  argument  than  His  own  self. 
As  if  to  say,  You  take  Me  for  teacher,  then  do  as 
I  do  by  mere  faith  in  Me  ;  after  that  look  for  other 
reasons,  which  at  best  must  be  inferior  ones  to 
the  all- sufficient  reasonableness  of  patterning  on 
Me.  "For  which  is  greater,  he  that  sitteth  at  ta- 
ble or  he  that  serveth  ?  Is  not  he  that  sittvth  at 
table?  But  I  am  in  the  midst  of  you  as  lie  that 
serveth." 

And  yet  He  was  mindful  of  their  high  office,  nor 
would  He  wound  their  susceptibilities  without  mercy. 
"And  you  are  they,"  He  added,  "who  have  con- 
tinued with  Me  in  My  temptations,  and  I  appoint 
to  you,  as  My  Father  hath  appointed  to  Me,  a  king- 
dom, that  you  may  eat  and  drink  at  My  table  in  My 
kingdom,  and  may  sit  upon  thrones,  judging  the 


"I  HA  VE  PRA  YED  FOR  THEE."  621 

twelve  tribes  of  Israel."  The  obvious  lesson  is  that 
however  assured  shall  be  the  lofty  place  of  the  Apos- 
tles, it  is  but  a  shadow  of  the  Redeemer's  own,  and 
if  they  share  His  place  of  honor,  they  must  gladly 
share  His  spirit  and  practice  of  humility. 


CHAPTER   XXX. 

THE  I,AST  DISCOURSE  CONTINUED:  "l  -HAVE  PRAYED 
FOR  THEE." — SECOND  PREDICTION  OP  PETER'S 
DENIAIy. — THE  INCIDENT  OF  THE  TWO  SWORDS. 

Luke  xxii.  31—38, 

HAVING  enforced  humility  upon  the  whole  body 
of  the  Apostles,  Jesus  turned  to  their  leader  and  gave 
him  a  special  lesson.  First  He  set  him  off  from  the 
others,  and  announced  emphatically  his  final  secur- 
ity from  Satan's  plots,  as  He  had  before  made  him 
the  bulwark  against  th^  incursions  of  the  vices  and 
lies  that  swarm  out  of  the  gates  of  hell :  the  confirma- 
tion of  his  brethren  shall  be  his 
office.  Yet  he  is  to  pass  through 
a  dark  valley  of  degradation  for 
the  annihilation  of  all  self-love. 
This  cure  of  Peter's  pride  shall 
come  from  the  remorse  and  bitter 


And  the  Lord  said :  Simon,  Simon,  be- 
hold Satan  hath  desired  to  have  you,  that 
he  may  sift  you  as  wheat,  but  I  have  pray- 
ed for  thee,  that  thy  faith  fail  not ;  and  thou 
being  once  converted,  confirm  thy  brethren. 
Who  said  to  him  :  Lord,  I  am  ready  to  go 
with  thee  both  into  prison  and  to  death. 
And  he  said  :  I  say  to  thee,  Peter,  the  cock 
shall  not  crow  this  day  till  thou  thrice  de- 
niest  that  thou  knowest  me. 


weeping  following  his  denial  of  his 

Master,    which    Jesus    foretells    for 

the   second  time,    led   thereto  by  a  repetition  of  the 

Apostle's  boast  of  fidelity. 

What  follows,  in  St.  Luke's  narrative,  is  the  Re- 
deemer's mysterious  reference  to  the  use  of  the  sword 
for  some  sort  of  defence.  He  prefaces  it  thus  :  ' '  And 


622  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

He  said  to  them :  When  I  sent  you  without  purse 
and  scrip  and  shoes,  did  you  want  for  anything? 
But  they  said:  Nothing."  This,  it  would  seeni,  was 
the  rule  of  life  for  the  actual  preaching  the  King- 
dom of  God.  But  another  condition  is  at  hand.  He 
is  to  be  apprehended  as  a  criminal  and  taken  away 
from  them.  The  kingdom  shall  for  a  brief  time  be 
suspended  and  the  King  shall  be  swept  off  by  His 
enemies.  And  what  about  the  disciples  meantime  ? 
We  shall  see  further  on  that  He  will  send  them  into 
hiding  with  orders  to  go  back  to  Galilee.  They 
must  be  disguised,  they  must  suffer  a  sort  of  reversion 
into  the  common  state  of  pilgrims  sojourning  at  Jeru- 
salem and  returning  to  their  homes.  They  must  be 
provided  with  money ;  each  must  be  ready  with  his 
own  purse  in  case  they  should  be  scattered.  They 
must  carry  weapons  of  defence  from  the  robbers  who 
infested  the  roads  of  Palestine.  "  Then  said  He  unto 
them :  But  now  he  that  hath  a  purse  let  him  take 
it,  and  likewise  a  scrip ;  and  he  that  hath  not,  let 
him  sell  his  coat,  and  buy  a  sword.  For  I  say  to 
you,  that  this  that  is  written  must  yet  be  fulfilled 
in  Me :  And  with  the  wicked  was  He  reckoned.  For 
the  things  concerning  Me  have  an  end.  But  they 
said:  Lord,  behold  here  are  two  swords.  And  He 
said  to  them :  It  is  enough." 

How  sadly  they  must  have  recalled  the  peaceful 
days  of  their  preaching  with  Jesus,  their  working  of 
miracles  in  His  name,  every  want  joyfully  supplied 
by  the  grateful  people.  Now  all  is  to  be  changed. 
They  are  to  be  hunted  like  wolves,  to  fly  from  place 
to  place,  hardly  getting  the  bare  necessities  of  life  even 
by  paying  for  them,  and  obliged  to  fall  back  for  a 
time  on  the  natural  right  of  self-defence.  Such  was 
the  drift  of  His  warning.  But  as  usual  they  did  not 


"7  A M  THE  WA  Y,  THE  TRUTH,  AND  THE  LIGHT."  623 

fully  understand  Him,  and  He  quickly  resumed  His 
discourse,  interrupted  by  His  admonition  to  Peter  and 
the  incident  of  the  swords.* 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

THE  I,AST  DISCOURSE   CONTINUED  :    ' '  I  AM  THE  WAY, 
THE   TRUTH,    AND   THE    UFE." 

John  xiv.  i— IS' 

As  we  go  onward  with  the  Master  this  discourse 
rises  higher  than  even  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  It 
elevates  the  precepts  of  brotherly  love  therein  given 
into  the  inner  life  of  God.  The  maxims  of  human 
brotherhood  are  wholly  divinized.  Joy  and  peace  are 
the  emotions,  trustfulness  and  faith  and  love  the 
virtues,  our  Lord's  divinity  and  His  relation  to  the 
Father  and  the  Spirit  the  dogmas  of  this  most  sub- 
lime Sermon,  uttered  by  the  Redeemer  as  He  stood 
on  the  first  ascent  of  the  Mountain  of  God. 

As  the  heavenly  promises  dropped  from  the  Mas- 
ter's   lips,    Thomas,    the    Doubter, 
gave  Him  occasion  for  plainer  expo- 
sition.     "And    whither  I   go   you 
know,  and  the  way  you  know,"  said 
Jesus.     He  was  going  to  His  Father 
in  Heaven  through  the  terrible  way 
of  the  Cross  ;  they  ought  to  have  known   it  by  this 
time,  surely.     But  it  was  not  so.     "Thomas  saith  to 
Him :  Lord,   we  know  not  whither  Thou   goest,    and 

*  Another  interpretation  of  the  expressions,  "Here  are  two  swords — 
it  is  enough,"  is  that  they  meant  this  as  an  inventory  of  their  armory 
wherewith  to  fight  the  Jews.  Simple  men !  to  dream  of  fighting  the 
power  of  the  high-priests  backed  by  the  legions  of  Rome  with  an  army  of  a 
dozen  peasants  armed  with  two  swords.  According  to  this  opinion  our 
Saviour  answered  ironically,  "  It  is  enough."  Or  perhaps  His  answer  '•  It 
is  enough"  meant  words  enough  about  that  matter. 


Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled.  You  be- 
lieve in  God,  believe  also  in  me.  In  my 
Father's  house  there  are  many  mansions. 
If  not,  I  would  have  told  you,  that  I  go  to 
prepare  a  place  for  you.  And  if  I  shall  go, 
and  prepare  a  place  for  you  :  1  will  come 
again,  and  will  take  you  to  myself,  that 
where  I  am,  you  also  may  be. 


6*4  ttf£  OP  7£$tfS  CHRIST. 

how  can  we  know  the  way  ?  "  Instead  of  answer- 
ing by  'again  affirming  the  Cross  as  the  road  to  the 
crown,  He  bent  kindly  to  their  feeble  comprehen- 
sion ;  assuring  them  that  faith  in  Him  and  love  of 
Him  was  the  gate  to  heaven  and  the  key  of  that 
gate.  "Jesus  saith  to  him:  I  am  the  way  and  the 
truth  and  the  life.  No  man  cometh  to  the  Father 
but  by  Me.  If  you  had  known  Me,  you  would  with- 
out doubt  have  known  My  Father  also,  and  from 
henceforth  you  shall  know  Him,  and  you  have  seen 
Him." 

This  was  a  most  puzzling  statement  of  the  relation 
of  Jesus    to    God — the    Jehovah    of    the    Jews — and 
Philip    stumbled    upon   a   question 


Philip  saith  to  him :  Lord,  shew  us  the      wnOce  answer  is  one  of  the  olainest 
Father,  and  it  is  enough  for  us.   Jesus     wnose  answer  is  one  or  me  plainest 

saith  to  him:  So  lone  a  time  have  I  been       r»f   rmr   T.nrH'c   t<=>aMiincrQ    tViat    "H>  i« 


saith  to  him  :  So  long  a 
with  you  :  and  have  you  not  known  me  ? 
Philip,  he  that  seeth  me,  seeth  the  Father 
also  How  sayest  thou,  shew  us  the  Fath- 
er ?  Do  you  not  believe  that  I  am  in  the 
Father,  and  the  Father  in  me  ?  The  words 
that  I  speak  to  you,  I  speak  not  of  myself. 
But  the  Father  who  abideth  in  me,  he  doth 
the  works.  Believe  you  not  that  I  am  in 
the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  me  ?  Other- 
wise believe  for  the  very  works'  sake. 


of  our  L,ord's  teachings,  that  He  is 
the  very  same  God  with  the  eternal 
Father.  First  He  adverts  to  His 
teaching  :  His  words  are  so  stamped 
with  power  that  they  make  the  mind 
ready  for  a  high  claim  ;  and  second, 
the  works  of  Jesus  are  those  of 
one  who  is  L/ord  and  Master  of  all  things,  especially 
master  of  the  secret  of  His  own  identity.  The  Wonder- 
worker of  the  ages  is  the  Truth-teller  of  the  ages, 
and  herein  He  makes  Himself  one  with  God  the 
Father.  "I  am  in  the  Father  and  the  Father  is  in 
Me." 

Jesus  then  proceeds  to  explain  the  Apostles'  share 
in  His  mission  from  the  Father.  It  is  the  perpetua- 
tion in  His  Church  of  a  miraculous  faith.  The  Church 
takes  His  place  on  earth  as  wonder-worker  after  He 
goes  to  His  Father,  increasing  in  volume  and  efficacy 
the  evidences  of  His  divinity  by  the  teaching  of  all 
truth  and  the  working  of  all  miracles.  "  Amen,  amen, 


JESUS  DISCOURSES  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIK2T.          62$ 

I  say  to  you,  he  that  believeth  in  Me,  the  works 
that  I  do,  He  also  shall  do,  and  greater  than  these 
shall  he  do,  because  I  go  to  the  Father."  Jesus 
then  adds  the  gift  of  prayer,  again  making  Himself 
the  equal  of  the  Father  in  His  statement  of  the  motive 
for  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  ' '  And  whatsoever  you  shall 
ask  the  Father  in  My  name,  that  will  I  do,  that  the 
Father  may  be  glorified  in  the  Son.  If  you  shall  ask 
Me  anything  in  My  name,  that  will  I  do."  Finally, 
as  if  to  settle  them  down  to  a  plain  precept,  yet  an 
all-embracing  one,  He  says,  "If  you  love  Me,  keep 
My  commandments."  If  they  were  mystified  by  His 
loftier  teachings,  here  was  something  homely  and  on 
a  level  with  their  understanding.  L,ove  and  obedience 
are  the  two  sole  requisites  for  the  highest  aspirations  ; 
the  first  is  the  substance  of  the  spiritual  life,  and  the 
other  the  test  of  our  possessing  it. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

THE  LAST  DISCOURSE  CONTINUED  :  JESUS  DISCOURSES 
OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT. — HOW  THE  FATHER  AND 
THE  SON  AND  THE  SPIRIT  DWELL  IN  THE  CHURCH 
AND  IN  THE  SOUL  OF  EACH  CHRISTIAN. 

John  xiv.  16-31 . 

POSSESSING  obedience  and  love,  the  soul  of  man 
possesses  God.  And  Jesus  now  teaches  very  explicitly 
how  God  is  our  Father.  It  is  because  His  Son,  who 
lives  by  the  Father,  lives  in  us  by  the  Father's  love, 
which  is  God  the  Spirit.  Thus  Jesus,  who  is  the 
Divine  Word,  mediates  through  the  Divine  Spirit  be- 
tween man  and  the  Heavenly  Father,  and  in  that 
manner  effectuates  the  filiation  of  the  soul  with  God. 
On  this  particular  occasion  the  Apostles  are  especially 


And  I  will  ask  the  Father,  and  he  shall 
give  you  another  Paraclete,  that  he  may 
abide  with  you  for  ever.  The  Spirit  of 
truth  whom  the  world  cannot  receive,  be- 
cause it  seeth  him  not,  nor  knoweth  him  : 
but  you  shall  know  him  ;  because  he  shall 
abide  with  you,  and  shall  be  in  you.  I  will 
not  leave  you  orphans  :  I  will  come  to  you. 
Yet  a  little  while  :  and  the  world  seeth  me 
no  more.  Rut  you  see  me :  because  I  live, 
ana  you  shall  live.  In  that  day  you  shall 
know  that  I  am  in  my  Father,  and  you  in 
me,  and  I  in  you.  He  that  hath  my  com- 
mandments, and  keepeth  them  :  he  it  is 
that  loveth  me.  And  he  that  loveth  me, 
shall  be  loved  of  my  Father  :  and  I  will 
love  him,  and  will  manifest  myself  to  him 


626  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

meant  as  the  recipients  of  God  the 
Holy  Ghost,  obtained  by  their  Ad- 
vocate, Jesus  the  Son  of  God.  The 
Divine  Spirit  is  to  comfort  them  with 
the  assurance  of  the  certain  truth 
generating  the  Church's  faith,  as 
well  as  investing  them  and  their 
successors  with  the  •gift  of  unerring 
teaching  authority. 

This  is  high  doctrine.  But  the 
last  words  of  their  Master  were  near- 
er the  comprehension  of  the  dis- 
ciples:  "He  that  loveth  Me  shall  be  loved  by  My 
Father,  and  I  will  love  him  and  will  manifest  Myself 
to  Him."  This  gives  to  each  believer  a  personal 
share  of  the  treasure  of  divine  influence  promised  to 
the  Church.  The  Apostle  St.  Jude  asked  for  instruc- 
tion about  the  method  or  process  of  Christ's  union 
with  them.  "Judas  saith  to  him,  not  the  Iscariot : 
Lord,  how  is  it  that  Thou  wilt  manifest  Thyself  to 
us,  and  not  to  the  world?" 

The  answer  of  Jesus  is  most  instructive.  The  first 
condition  for  obtaining  the  indwelling  Divinity  is 
simply  love.  The  method  of  loving  is  to  love,  the 
process  of  loving  is  to  love  :  in  other  words,  we  begin 
to  have  God  as  our  soul's  Father  and  Brother  and 
Spouse  by  the  inspiration  of  love  from  on  high.  This 
inner  love  works  outwardly  and  inwardly  by  obtdi- 
ence,  the  keeping  of  our  Saviour's  law — >"  he  will  keep 
My  word."  To  the  outward  brotherhood,  as  well 
as  to  the  inward  conscience,  this  obedience  is  the 
test  of  our  possessing  the  divine  love ;  it  is  like- 
wise the  first  fruit  of  love.  But  the  imparting  of  this 
life  of  love  is  not  a  wholly  spiritual  act;  it  is  both 
spiritual  and  external  ;  it  is  visible  and  invisible ; 


JESUS  DISCOURSES  OF  THE  HOLY   SPTRiT.  627 

according,  in  this  resnect,  with  a  Drevious  teach- 
ing:  "  As  I  live  by  the  Father,  so  Ue  that  eateth 
Me,  the  same  also  shall  live  by  Me."  Hence  the  an- 
swer to  St.  Jude  affirms  good  works,  obedience  to  God's 
law,  as  both  the  criterion  and  the  fruit  of  love,  and 
shows  the  united  action  of  the  Son  and  the  Father  upon 
the  soul  of  man.  "Jesus  answered  and  said  to  him: 
If  any  one  love  Me,  he  will  keep  My  word,  and  My 
Father  will  love  him,  and  We  will  come  to  him,  and 
will  make  Our  abode  with  him.  He  that  loveth  Me 
not  keepeth  not  My  words.  And  the  word  which  you 
have  heard  is  not  Mine,  but  the  Father's  who  sent  Me." 

But  a  further  question  He  answered  without  their 
asking  it :  What  is  to  take  the  place  of  His  visible 
presence  after  His  departure  ?  How  shall  His  teach- 
ing be  tnaint9Uied  as  a  living  voice,  exerting  all  its 
present  spell  upon  their  hearts?  The  answer  is  the 
constant  presence  of  God  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  Church, 
constantly  teaching  and  guiding  men  both  as  indivi- 
duals and  as  nations.  "These  things  have  I  spoken 
to  you,  abiding  with  you.  But  the  Paraclete,  the 
Holy  Ghost,  whom  the  Father  will  send  in  My  name, 
He  will  teach  you  all  things,  and  bring  all  things  to 
your  mind  whatsoever  I  shall  have  said  to  you." 

Then  our  Saviour  gave  the  Apostles  some  very 
comforting  words  in  view  of  His  departure  from  them  : 
"  My  peace  I  leave  with  you,  My  peace  I  give  unto 
you ;  not  as  the  world  giveth  do  I  give  unto  you. 
L,et  not  your  heart  be  troubled,  nor  let  it  be  afraid. 
You  have  heard  that  I  said  to  you  :  I  gc  away,  and 
I  come  unto  you.  If  you  loved  Me,  you  would  be 
glad  because  I  go  to  the  Father ;  for  the  Father  is 
greater  than  I."  This  He  said  as  man,  and  as  in- 
dicating the  blissful  lot  of  His  human  soul  in  the 
bosom  of  God  the  Father. 


628  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

He  then  renewed  His  farewell,  giving  it  the  form 
of  a  prophecy  :  ' '  And  now  I  have  told  you  before  it 
come  to  pass,  that  when  it  shall  come  to  pass,  you 
may  believe.  I  will  not  now  speak  many  things  with 
you.  For  the  prince  of  this  world  cometh,  and  in  Me 
he  hath  not  anything.  But  that  the  world  may  know 
that  I  love  the  Father,  and  as  the  Father  hath  given 
Me  commandment,  so  do  I.  Arise,  let  us  go  hence." 

It  is  plain  that  He  means  by  *  *  the  world  ' '  that 
unregenerate  mass  of  mankind  everywhere  surrounding 
the  faithful  children  of  God,  as  well  as  the  smaller 
number  of  men  and  women  of  earthly  ends  and  purposes 
scattered  among  the  faithful  themselves  in  all  ages, 
very  often  more  powerful  than  they.  These  are  called 
"the  world,"  and  "the  worldly,"  and  "the  worldly- 
minded,"  because  they  make  the  life  in  this  world 
the  chief  end  of  their  striving.  They  live  for  men's 
approval  rather  than  for  God's,  for  the  present  and 
visible  joys  of  life  rather  than  for  those  that  are  future 
and  invisible.  Upon  these  the  heart  of  Jesus  is  bent, 
indeed,  for  their  salvation ;  but  against  their  influence 
and  their  maxims  He  incessantly  sets  His  own  in- 
fluence and  the  maxims  of  His  Gospel,  which  dis- 
tinctly prefer  the  invisible  and  future  and  eternal 
good  to  the  present  and  fleeting  good  of  this  world. 

In  this  discourse  the  soul  of  Jesus  reaches  upwards 
and  brings  down  to  His  Apostles  a  doctrine  above  any 
hitherto  imparted.  It  is  the  doctrine  of  union  with 
God — He  is  expounding  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the 
Life  of  oneness  with  the  Deity.  Intimate,  indwrelling 
union,  is  the  boon  He  offers.  The  doctrine  which  ex- 
presses it  is  the  Unity  and  Trinity  of  God.  God  the 
Father,  God  the  Son,  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  one  God, 
made  known  to  us  by  this  wisdom  as  God  our  Father, 
God  our  Brother,  God  the  Spouse  of  our  souls. 


yESUS  DISCOU*  i  £S  OF  THE  HOL  Y  SPIRIT.          629 

Another  treasure  in  this  discourse  is  the  doctrine 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Jesus  teaches  that  He  is  dis- 
tinct from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  since  the  Son  is 
to  ask  for  Him  and  the  Father  is  to  send  Him  ;  He 
is  personal  God  because  He  is  to  be  master  and 
teacher  in  Jesus'  stead.  He  is  the  power  of  God 
in  the  souls  of  men,  as  Jesus  was  the  power  of  God 
in  the  visible  lives  of  men.  That  Jesus  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  are  of  one  substance  with  each  other  and  the 
Father,  and  also  that  each  of  the  Three  is  of  dis- 
tinct personality,  is  the  plain  doctrine  herein  affirmed. 

Finally  the  interior  life  is  placed  first  and  highest 
among  the  relations  between  God  and  man.  The  privi- 
lege of  intimately  knowing  and  consciously  enjoying 
Jesus  and  His  Eternal  Father  is  granted  not  only  to 
the  Apostles,  but  to  the  souls  of  all  regenerate  men 
— to  all  whom  the  Father  and  Son  shall  love  ;  and 
this  divine  privilege,  this  heavenly  "partaking  of  the 
divine  nature,"  is  brought  into  actuality  by  the  com- 
ing of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  maintained  by  his  indwell- 
ing. He  is  the  unifying  principle  of  the  Godhead,  as 
the  Son  is  the  filiating  principle,  and  the  Father  the 
originating  principle. 


63o 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

THE    HOLY   EUCHARIST. 

/.  Cor.  3:2.23—30  ;  Matt.  xxvi.  26-28  ;  Mark  xiv.  22-24.  ; 
Luke  xxii.  19-20. 


have  already  considered  the  question  whether 
our  Lord's  extended  discourse  at  the  Last  Supper 
was  all  delivered  before  the  institution  of  the  Eucharist 
or  all  after  it  ;  or  was  given  in  part  as  a  preparation 
for  the  supper,  and  afterwards  resumed  and  finished. 
We  follow  the  opinion  of  those  who  divide  the  dis- 
course, placing  the  first  section  —  that  treated  of  in  the 
preceding  chapters  —  as  introductory  to  the  great  Sac- 
rament of  the  New  Law.  The  sentence,  "  Arise,  let 
us  go  hence,"  according  to  this  view,  is  not  taken  as 
the  signal  of  departure  to  the  Mount  of  Olives,  but 
rather  to  mark  a  removal  to  another  room  arranged  for 
the  institution  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  It  seems 
to  us  highly  probable  that  some 
portion  of  our  Saviour's  discourse, 
so  redolent  of  love,  was  given  as  a 
preliminary  to  the  institution  of  this 
His  sacrament  of  love. 

The  bread  used  in  the  institution 
of  the  Kucharist  was  the  unleaven- 
ed bread  of  the  Passover  supper. 
The  Latin  Church  always  uses  the 
same  kind  at  Mass,  both  in  order 
to  be  more  exact  in  the  imitation 
of  our  Lord's  first  Mass,  and  to 
typify  the  absence  of  the  leaven  of 
sin  from  our  hearts  at  the  heavenly 
banquet.  The  breaking  of  the 
bread  was,  we  are  led  to  think,  made 


Tor  I  have  received  of  the  Lord  that 
which  also  I  delivered  unto  you,  that  the 
Lord  Jesus,  the  same  night  in  which  he 
was  betrayed,  took  bread,  and  giving 
thanks,  broke,  and  said  :  Take  ye  and  eat : 
this  is  my  body  which  shall  be  delivered  for 
you  :  this  do  for  the  commemoration  of 
me.  In  like  manner  also  the  chalice,  after 
he  had  supped,  saying  :  This  chalice  is  the 
new  testament  in  my  blood  :  this  do  ye,  as 
often  as  you  shall  drink,  for  the  commemo- 
ration of  me.  For  as  often  as  you  shall 
eat  this  bread,  and  drink  the  chalice,  you 
shall  shew  the  death  of  the  Lord,  until  he 
come.  Therefore  whosoever  shall  eat  this 
bread,  or  drink  the  chalice  of  the  Lord  un- 
worthily, shall  be  guilty  ot  the  body  and  of 
the  blood  of  the  Lord.  But  let  a  man 
prove  himself  :  and  so  let  him  eat  of  that 
bread,  and  drink  of  the  chalice.  For  he 
that  eateth  and  drinketh  unworthily,  eateth 
and  drinketh  judgment  to  himself,  not  dis- 
cerning the  body  of  the  Lord.  Therefore 
are  there  many  infirm  and  weak  among  you, 
and  many  sleep. 


THE  HOL  Y  EUCHA  RIS  T.  631 

easy  by  the  loaf  being  partially  divided  beforehand. 
The  consecration  probably  took  place  after  the  Re- 
deemer had  thus  carefully  prepared  for  an  act  so  solemn 
and  so  touching,  perpetuating  to  the  end  of  time  His 
true  presence  and  His  loving  remembrance  everywhere 
among  the  children  of  men. 

The  words  changing  the  bread  and.  wine  into  the 
Lord's  body  are  explicit:  ''This  is  My  body,"  "This 
is  My  blood."  For  fifteen  hundred  years  Christen- 
dom held  universally  to  the  literal  meaning  and  to  the 
miraculous  change  which  these  words  proclaim ;  up 
to  the  Reformation  only  two  feeble  attempts  were 
made  at  denial  of  the  Real  Presence,  one  in  the  ninth 
and  the  other  in  the  eleventh  century,  and  both  were 
instantly  and  unanimously  rejected  and  condemned  by 
the  Church,  her  people  and  her  ministry.  A  year  be- 
fore the  institution  the  Redeemer  had  promised  His 
real  flesh  and  blood  for  a  mystical  banquet,  and  had 
insisted  sternly  on  acceptance  of  the  literal  mean- 
ing of  His  words.  The  promise  is  now  fulfilled.  The 
substance  of  the  bread  and  wine  is  separated  from 
their  outward  forms,  and  these  forms  are  assumed  by 
the  substance  of  the  flesh  and  blood  of  Jesus  Christ. 
A  change  of  substance,  transubstantiation,  has  taken 
place  behind  the  veils  of  the  external  appearances  of 
bread  and  wine.  Otherwise,  Christ,  alike  in  St.  John's 
account  of  His  promise  of  the  Eucharist  and  in  this 
fourfold  account  of  St.  Matthew,  St.  Luke,  St.  Mark, 
and  St.  Paul  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise,  has 
hopelessly  deluded  and  bewildered  His  entire  Church, 
including  the  Apostles  themselves ;  which  is  beyond 
all  possibility  of  belief. 

This  most  solemn  event  was  the  perfecting  of  the 
design  of  God  in  the  Incarnation.  It  extends  the 
divine  union  of  Creator  and  creature  to  each  individual 


632 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


disciple  of  Christ  unto  the  end  of  time.     As  the  God- 
.aead  joined   our    human   nature,    as    nature,    and   as 
represented   by  that   of  the   Man-Christ,  so  now  does 
the  God-Man  join  every  one  of  us  to  Himself  and  to 
each  other  in  this  banquet  of  union  and  communion. 
Accordingly  St.  Paul  teaches  (I.  Cor.  x.  16, 
17)  :   "  The  chalice  of  benediction  which  we 
bless,  is  it  not  the  communion  of  the  blood 
of  Christ  ?     And  the  bread  which  we  break, 
is  it  not  the  partaking  of    the  body   of  the 
Lord?     For  we,  being  many,  are  one  bread,  one 
body,  all  that  partake  of  one  bread." 

Upon  the  Redeemer's  words,  "  Do  this  in  com- 
memoration of  Me,"  is  placed  the  institution  of 
the  Mass  as  a  sacrifice.     There   is   a  commemo- 
rative  as  well  as  an  actual  identity  of    the  per- 
petual Eucharistic  sacrifice  of  the  Mass  with  that 
of  Calvary.     For  the  Kucharistic  blood  of  Christ 
as  now   offered   upon  our  altars  is  the  same  that 
was  offered   up  on  Calvary,  being   in  both   cases 
"shed   for   you,  and  for  many,  for  the  remission 
of  sins."     Jesus  as  commemorated  in  Holy  Mass 
and  Communion  is  the  same    Lamb  of  God  who 
"This  chalice  is  the  new  takes  away  the  sins  of  the  world  by  His  sacrifice 
testament  in  My  blood."   oll   tjie    Cross.     Hence  St.    Paul:   "  As  often   as 
you  shall  eat  this  bread,  and  drink   the    chalice,  you 
shall  shew   the   death  of  the   Lord,  until   He   come." 
Thertfore,  the  command,  "Do  this  in  commemoration 
of   Me,"  makes   the  Apostles  priests — that  is   to   say, 
sacrificial   ministers  of  Christ's   new  law,    ordained  to 
offer   Christ  in  the  Kucharistic  sacrifice  which   is  the 
perpetual  renewal  of  that  of  Calvary.     The  offerer  is 
the   same    High- Priest  represented   by   His    apostolic 
•  priesthood,  the  Victim   is   the   same,  the  purpose  the 

same,  the  efficacy  the  same.     The  differences  between 


UNION  WITH  JESUS  AND  SPIRITUAL  LIFE.          633 

Calvary  and  our  daily  Mass  are  not  essential — lapse  of 
time,  separation  of  place,  and  the  present  unbloody 
consummation  of  the  act  of  sacrifice.  None  of  these 
differences  affect  the  real  act  and  its  eternal  pur- 
pose, for  time  is  naught  to  the  Deity,  nor  is  it  aught 
to  His  immortal  children,  nor  is  separation  of  place  a 
hindrance  to  divine  love  and  power,  nor  is  the  Christ 
of  to-day,  who  dies  no  more,  any  less  a  Redeemer 
than  He  who  once  for  all  was  slain  upon  the  altar 
of  the  Cross. 

Here  then  is  the  essence  of  Christ's  religion  :  The 
perpetuation  of  Himself  both  physically  and  spiritually 
into  every  moment  of  time,  the  localization  of  Him- 
self into  every  place,  changing  the  entire  world  into 
a  holy  of  holies,  the  personalization  of  Himself  into 
every  human  being,  enabling  each  one  to  live  with 
Him  in  a  union  like  that  whereby  He  lives  one  life 
with  the  Father.  Truly  the  Eucharist  has  made  a  re- 
ligion of  divine  wonders. 

CHAPTER   XXXIV. 

JESUS  RESUMES  HIS  DISCOURSE  :  UNION  WITH  HIM  IS 
THE  CONDITION  OF  ALL  SPIRITUAL  LIFE. — THE 
IDENTITY  OF  JOY  AND  LOVE  AND  OBEDIENCE. — 
"LOVE  ONE  ANOTHER,  AS  I  HAVE  LOVED  YOU." 
— THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

John  xv.  1-27. 

IN  various  places  of  the  Old  Testament  God  called 
the  people  of  Israel  His  vine.  He  had  planted  the 
race  and  fenced  it  about  as  a  gardener  plants  the  nur- 
sery of  a  vineyard,  for  it  was  God's  purpose  that 
Israel  should  finally  overspread  the  earth  with  divine 
fruitfulness.  Jesus  now  proclaims  the  fulfilment  of 
this  in  His  own  person,  teaching  thereby  the  abso- 


634  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

lute  need  of  mental  and  moral  union  with  Him  by 
faith  and  love.  That  union  is  like  the  oneness  of  a 
vine  and  its  branches. 

As  the  sap  in  a  dead  branch  is  incapable  of  fruit- 
fulness,  so  all  the  life  of  a  Christian  in  mortal  sin 
is  that  of  a  dead  member  of  Christ.  And  all  the  fruit- 
fulness  of  one  who  is  not  a  Christian  is  that  of  a 
wild  vine,  insipid  and  useless. 

Jesus  gives  us  a  further  exposition  of  His  ever- 
recurring  theme  in  this  discourse — 
the  qualities  of  Holy  Love,  especial- 
ly as  related  to  joy  and  obedience. 
His  measure  of  love  for  us  is  the 
same  as  that  of  the  Father  for  His 
Son  ;  His  standard  of  our  obedience 
to  Him  is  His  own  obedience  to  His 
Father's  will ;  His  gift  of  joy  to  us  is 


I  am  the  true  vine  ;  and  My  Father  is  the 
husbandman.  Every  branch  in  Me,  that 
beareth  not  fruit,  He  will  take  away  :  and 
every  one  that  beareth  fruit  He  will  purge 
it,  that  it  may  bring  forth  more  fruit.  Now 
you  are  clean  by  reason  of  the  word  which 
I  have  spoken  to  you.  Abide  in  Me  :  and 
I  in  you.  As  the  branch  cannot  bear  fruit 
of  itself,  unless  it  abide  in  the  vine,  so 
neither  can  you,  unless  you  abide  in 
Me.  I  am  the  vine  ;  you  the  branches  : 
he  that  abideth  in  Me,  and  I  in  him,  the 
same  beareth  much  fruit :  for  without  Me 


you  can  do  nothing.  If  any  one  abide  not  in 
Me  :  he  shall  be  cast  forth  as  a  branch,  and 
shall  wither,  and  they  shall  gather  him  up, 
and  cast  him  into  the  fire,  and  he  burneth. 
If  you  abide  in  Me,  and  My  words  abide 
in  you,  you  shall  ask  whatever  you  will, 
and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you.  In  this  is 
My  Father  glorified  :  that  you  bring  forth 
very  much  fruit,  and  become  My  disciples. 


the  fulness  of  His  Father's  gift  of 
joy  to  Him.  "  As  the  Father  hath 
loved  Me,  I  also  have  loved  you. 
Abide  in  My  love.  If  you  keep  My 
commandments  you  shall  abide  in 
My  love ;  as  I  also  have  kept  My 
Father's  commandments  and  do  abide  in  His  love. 
These  things  I  have  spoken  to  you  that  My  joy  be 
in  you,  and  your  joy  may  be  filled." 

And  then  He  gave  His  Apostles,  and  through  them 
He  gives  to  us,  a  most  touching  explanation  of  His 
love ;  how  of  His  own  initiative  He  had  chosen  them 
to  be  His  friends,  had  made  His  heavenly  wisdom 
their  common  property,  His  own  fruitful  influence 
for  good  their  own,  His  power  of  prayer  their  own  pre- 
rogative. As  they  were  Jews,  and  therefore  men  of 
law,  He  begins  and  ends  with  the  emphatic  state- 
ment that  all  commandment  is  love;  and  as  their 


IDENTITY  OF  JOY  AND  LOVE  AND  OBEDIENCE.  635 

thoughts  about  men  were  racial  and  narrow,  He  insists 
that  all  love  of  God  is  love  of  our  fellow- men. 

Furthermore  He  anticipates  their  difficulty — that 
their  love  for  men  may  not  be  reciprocated.  He  shows 
that  the  reason  is  ignorance  of  Him,  their  Redeemer. 
Until  men  know  Jesus  with  the  living  knowledge 
of  faith,  brotherly  love  is  impossible  in  the  sense  in 
which  He  teaches  and  practises  it.  Was  not  this 
proved  by  His  own  failure  to  win  men's  love  ?  It  was 
from  lack  of  knowing  Him,  wilful  and  obstinate  re- 
fusal to  learn  Him  and  His  teaching,  that  men  rejected 
Him.  Those  who  are  thus  unknowing  and  unloving 
He  calls  "the  world  "—the  multitude  of  men  and 
women  who  more  or  less  completely  make  this  world, 
this  present  life,  its  maxims  and  its 
joys,  the  rule  and  aim  of  their  ex- 
istence. "If  the  world  hate  you, 
know  ye  that  it  hath  hated  Me  be- 
fore you.  If  you  had  been  of  the 
world,  the  world  would  love  its  own  ; 
but  because  you  are  not  of  the 
world,  but  I  have  chosen  you  out 
of  the  world,  therefore  the  world 
hateth  you." 

Jesus  thus  divides  the  human 
race  into  two  distinct  classes,  those 
who  take  Him  and  His  Father's 


This  is  My  commandment,  that  you  love 
one  another,  as  I  have  loved  you.  Great- 
er love  than  this  no  man  hath,  that  a 
man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends.  You 
are  My  friends,  if  you  do  the  things  that  I 
command  you .  I  will  not  now  call  you  ser- 
vants :  for  the  servant  knoweth  not  what 
his  lord  doth.  But  I  have  called  you 
friends  :  because  all  things  whatsoever  I 
have  heard  of  My  Father,  I  have  made 
known  to  you.  You  have  not  chosen  Me  ; 
but  I  have  chosen  you ;  and  have  appoint- 
ed you,  that  you  should  go,  and  should 
bring  forth  fruit,  and  your  fruit  should 
remain  :  that  whatsoever  you  shall  ask  of 
the  Father  in  My  name,  He  may  give  it 
you.  1  hese  things  I  command  you,  that 
vou  love  one  another. 


kingdom  as  the  only  purpose  of  their  lives,  and  those 
who  take  instead  the  riches  and  honors  and  pleasures 
of  this  world.  The  former  have  chosen  Him  as  their 
Master,  and  His  painful  lot  as  their  joy  ;  every  other 
joy  being  absorbed  in  this.  "  Remember  My  word 
that  I  said  to  you:  The  servant  is  not  greater  than 
his  master.  If  they  have  persecuted  Me,  they  will 
persecute  you.  If  they  have  kept  My  word,  they  will 


636  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

keep  yours  also.  But  all  these  things  they  will  do  to 
you  for  My  name's  sake,  because  they  know  not  of 
Him  that  sent  Me." 

Jesus  then  explains  the  sinfulness  of  the  worldling  : 
He  knowingly  rejects  God  and  God's  Son  and  mes- 
senger. "  If  I  had  not  come  and  spoken  to  them, 
they  would  not  have  sin ;  but  now  they  have  no  ex- 
cuse for  their  sin.  He  that  hateth  Me,  hateth  My 
Father  also.  If  I  had  not  done  among  them  the 
works  that  110  other  man  hath  done,  they  would  not 
have  sin ;  but  now  they  have  both  seen  and  hated, 
both  Me  and  My  Father.  But  that  the  word  may  be 
fulfilled  which  is  written  in  their  law:  They  hated 
Me  without  cause/' 

11  But  when  the  Paraclete  cometh  whom  I  will  send 
you  from  the  Father,  the  Spirit  of  Truth  who  pro- 
ceedeth  from  the  Father,  He  shall  give  testimony 
of  Me.  And  you  shall  give  testimony,  because  you 
are  with  Me  from  the  beginning. *' 


THE  LAST  DISCOURSE  IS  CONCLUDED.  637 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 

THE  LAST  DISCOURSE  IS  CONCLUDED  :  JESUS  FORE- 
TELLS PERSECUTION. — RENEWED  PROMISE  OF 
THE  HOLY  GHOST. — SORROW  SHALL  BE  TURNED 
INTO  JOY. 

John  xvi. 

OUR  Saviour's  knowledge  of  the  forebodings  in  the 
hearts  of  His  followers  once  more  drew  from  Him  an 
explanation  of  their  future  sufferings  ;  also  a  palliation 
of  the  crimes  of  their  persecutors.  It  is  the  same  as 
He  shall  utter  on  the  Cross :  ' '  They  know  not  what 
they  do."  "These  things  have  I  spoken  to  you,  that 
you  may  not  be  scandalized.  They  will  put  you  out  of 
the  synagogues,  yea,  the  hour  cometh,  that  whoso- 
ever killeth  you,  will  think  that  he  doth  a  service  to 
God."  Such  will  be  the  delusion  of  even  great  souls, 
like  Saul  of  Tarsus,  who  will  hold  the  garments  of 
the  men  who  shall  stone  St.  Stephen  to  death.  "  And 
these  things  they  will  do  to  you,  because  they  have 
not  known  the  Father  nor  Me.  But  these  things  I 
have  told  you,  that  when  the  hour  shall  come  you 
may  remember  that  I  told  you  of  them."  Every  one 
of  His  hearers,  excepting  John,  was  destined  to  die 
the  martyr's  death  and  to  be  comforted  by  these  words 
in  his  mortal  agony.  "But,"  He  adds,  "I  told 
you  not  these  things  from  the  beginning,  because 
I  was  with  you."  This  was  in  answer  to  a  thought 
in  their  minds  of  the  vivid  contrast  between  their 
early  triumphs  in  Galilee  and  the  present  gloomy 
prospect. 

Then  the  Redeemer  renewed  His  doctrine  of  the 
Spirit.  It  is  that  man's  joy  is  union  with  God,  and 
this  mainly  in  his  inner  life,  enjoying  in  the  gift  of 


638 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


And  now  I  go  to  him  that  sent  me,  and 
none  of  you  asketh  me  :  Whither  goest 
thou  ?  But  because  I  have  spoken  these 
things  to  you,  sorrow  hath  filled  your  heart. 
But  I  tell  you  the  truth  :  it  is  expedient  to 
you  that  I  go  ;  for  if  \  go  not,  the  Para- 
clete will  not  come  to  you  ;  but  if  I  go,  I 
will  send  him  to  you.  And  when  he  is 
come,  he  will  convince  the  world  of  sin, 
and  of  justice,  and  of  judgment.  Of  sin  : 
because  they  believed  not  in  me.  And  of 
justice  :  because  1  go  to  the  Father  ;  and 
you  shall  see  me  no  longer.  And  of  judg- 
ment: because  the  prince  of  this  world  is 
already  judged.  I  have  yet  many  things  to 
say  to  you  :  but  you  cannot  bear  them  now. 
But  when  he,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come, 
he  will  teach  you  all  truth.  For  he  shall 
not  speak  of  himself  :  but  what  things  so- 
ever he  shall  hear,  he  shall  speak  :  and  the 
things  that  are  to  come  he  shall  show  you. 
He  shall  glorify  me  ;  because  he  shall  re- 
ceive of  mine,  and  shall  show  it  to  you. 
All  things  whatsoever  the  Father  hath  are 
mine.  Therefore  I  said,  that  he  shall  re- 
ceive of  mine,  and  show  it  to  you. 


divine  faith  the  wisdom  of  God,  the 
affections  all  attracted  upwards  and 
satisfied  in  God.  Jesus  has  given 
this  inner  joy  to  us  in  His  own  two- 
fold joy  as  God  and  Man. 

The  Apostles  had  shared  in  God's 
joy  in  their  Master's  very  looks  ; 
they  had  heard  it  thrilling  in  the 
tones  of  His  voice.  But  this  was 
God  and  His  Paradise  unmerited, 
overwhelming  and  mastering  them 
with  resistless  force.  Could  they  be 
made  worthy  of  it?  Yes,  if  they 
would  keep  the  inner  touch  and 
inner  sight  and  inner  sound  of  God 
after  being  deprived  of  the  external 
aid  of  Jesus'  bodily  presence  ;  or  at 
other  external  aid  than  the  mystical 
Hence  He  explains 


least   with   no 

body  of  Christ,  His  Church, 
over  again  the  relation  of  the  Christian  to  the  invisi- 
ble God.,  the  Father,  Word  and  Spirit :  it  is  joy. 
Filial  joy  is  the  dominant  sentiment  of  religion,  when 
true  and  perfect.  Jesus,  meantime,  could  not  re- 
press a  rebuke — though  it  was  a  mild  one — because 
they  did  not  open  their  hearts  and  sympathize  with 
Him,  and  ask  Him  of  His  departure,  the  woe  of 
which  filled  His  discourse  with  omens.  They  were, 
in  fact,  wholly  taken  up  with  their  own  impending 
loss. 

He  assures  them  of  the  power  of  the  Paraclete  to 
convict  men  of  their  sins  in  His  court  of  conscience. 
Since  Jesus  sent  His  Spirit  to  rule  the  human  race, 
conscience  has  found  a  voice  more  terrible  than  Si- 
nai's trumpet  tones. 

He    has,    He    assures  them,    many   things    yet  to 


THE  LAST  DISCOURSE  IS  CONCLUDED. 


639 


teach,  and  these  He  will  impart  after  His  resurrec- 
tion :  concerning  the  outer  Messianic  kingdom,  His 
Church  and  its  treasury  of  graces ;  concerning  the 
interior  kingdom  of  the  Spirit  and  its  ever-flowing 
springs  of  love  and  joy,  of  pardon  and  peace ;  and 
concerning  the  end  of  the  Jewish  ceremonial  law. 

Again  He  tells-  of  His  departure,  His  reappear- 
ance, and  finally  His  ascension  into  heaven:  "A 
little  while,  and  you  shall  not  see  Me;  and  again 
a  little  while,  and  you  shall  see  Me,  because  I  go  to 
the  Father."  At  last  they  asked  the  questions  He 
had  been  striving  to  elicit.  "Then  some  of  His  dis- 
ciples said  one  to  another  :  What  is 
this  that  He  saith  to  us :  A  little 
while  and  you  shall  not  see  Me : 
and  again  a  little  while,  and  you 
shall  see  Me  ;  and  :  Because  I  go  to 
the  Father  ?  They  said  therefore  : 
What  is  this  that  He  saith  :  A  little 
while?  We  know  not  what  He 
speaketh  ?  ' '  Yet  He  delayed  giving 
them  full  satisfaction,  but  returned 
to  the  doctrine  of  Christian  joy  as 
the  sequel  of  Christian  suffering, 
which  will  end  in  a  bliss  so  great 
as  to  do  away  with  all  forms  of. 
prayer  except  that  of  thanksgiving. 
Meantime  He  bids  them  wait  for  a 
teaching  plainer  than  He  had  ever 
given  them,  not  in  parables  and 
proverbs,  but  in  direct  words  ;  which 
indeed  He  fulfilled  in  His  many  in- 
terviews with  them,  after  rising  from 
the  dead.  But  for  the  present  one 
plain  fact  He  had  already  taught 


And  Jesus  knew  that  they  had  a  mind  to 
ask  him  :  and  he  said  to  them  :  Of  this  do 
you  inquire  among  yourselves,  because  I 
said  :  A  little  while,  and  you  shall  not  see 
me  :  and  again  a  little  while,  and  you  shall 
see  me  ?  Amen,  amen,  I  say  to  you,  that 
you  shall  lament  and  weep,  but  the  world 
shall  rejoice :  and  you  shall  be  made  sor- 
rowful, but  your  sorrow  shall  be  turned  into 
joy.  A  woman,  when  she  is  in  labor,  hath 
sorrow,  because  her  hour  is  come  :  but  when 
she  hath  brought  forth  the  child,  she  re- 
membereth  no  more  the  anguish,  for  joy 
that  a  man  is  born  into  the  world.  So  also 
you  now  indeed  have  sorrow,  but  I  will  see 
you  again,  and  your  heart  shall  rejoice  ; 
and  your  joy  no  man  shall  take  from  j  ou. 
And  in  that  day  you  shall  not  ask  me  any- 
thing. Amen,  amen,  I  say  to  you  :  If  you 
ask  the  Father  anything  in  my  name,  he 
will  give  it  you.  Hitherto  you  have  not 
asked  anything  in  my  name.  Ask,  and 
you  shall  receive  :  that  your  joy  may  be 
full.  These  things  I  have  spoken  to  you  in 
proverbs.  The  hour  cometh  when  1  will 
no  more  speak  to  you  in  proverbs,  but  will 
show  you  plainly  of  the  Father  In  that 
day  you  shall  ask  in  my  name  ;  and  I  say 
not  to  you,  that  I  will  ask  the  Father  for 
you  :  for  the  Father  himself  loveth  you, 
because  you  have  loved  me,  and  have  be- 
lieved that  I  came  out  from  God.  I  came 
forth  from  the  Father,  and  am  come  into 
the  world  :  again  I  leave  the  world,  and  I 
go  to  the  Father.  His  disciples  say  to  him: 
Behold  now  thou  speakest  plainly,  and 
speakest  no  proverb. 


640  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

and  that  He  now  repeats :  He  is  about  to  leave  the 
world  and  return  to  His  Father.  Also  He  gives  His 
ever- recurring  promise  of  the  efficacy  of  prayer. 

Upon  this  the  simple-minded  followers  of  the  Re- 
deemer gladly  confessed  His  divine  wisdom.  "Now 
we  know  that  Thou  knowest  all  things,  and  that  Thou 
needest  not  that  any  man  should  ask  Thee.  By  this 
we  believe  that  Thou  earnest  forth  from  God."  The 
faith  He  desired  them  to  have  was  indeed  in  their 
hearts  and  on  their  lips.  But  what  quality  of  faith  ? 
Very  cowardly  indeed.  "Jesus  answered  them:  Do 
you  now  believe  ?  Behold  the  hour  cometh,  and  it  is 
now  come,  that  you  shall  be  scattered,  every  man  to 
his  own,  and  shall  leave  Me  alone;  and  yet  I  am  not 
alone,  because  the  Father  is  with  Me."  And  He  ends 
His  discourse  by  renewing  His  grant  of  the  gift  of 
peace.  "These  things  I  have  spoken  to  you,  that  in 
Me  you  may  have  peace.  In  the  world  you  shall  have 
distress ;  but  have  confidence :  I  have  overcome  the 
world."  How  nobly  has  He  overcome  it!  and  how 
differently  do  His  words  sound  from  the  famous  boast 
of  Caesar  after  one  of  His  victories,  "  I  came,  I  saw, 
I  conquered"!  That  conquest  of  Caesar's  was  by 
shedding  the  blood  of  his  enemies;  our  Saviour's  by 
His  enemies  shedding  His  blood,  lovingly  offered 
for  them  and  for  all  mankind. 


JESUS  PRA  YS  FOR  HIS  CHURCH.  64! 

CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

JESUS   PRAYS   FOR   HIS   CHURCH. 
John  xvii. 

JESUS  ended  His  long  discourse  with  a  prayer  for 
the  Christian  Church  and  for  Catholic  unity.  His 
own  glory,  our  supernatural  life,  and  the  true  faith 
as  the  foundation  on  which  it  rests  are  all  won  for 
us  by  the  prayer  of  Jesus  and  placed 
by  Him  in  His  Father's  hands. 


These  things  Jesus  spoke,  and  lifting  up 
his  eyes  to  heaven,  he  said  :  Father,  the 
hour  is  come  ;  glorify  thy  Son,  that  thy  Son 
may  glorify  thee.  As  tuou  hast  given  him 
power  over  all  flesh,  that  he  may  give  eter- 
nal life  to  all  whom  thou  hast  given  him. 
Now  this  is  eternal  life,  that  they  may 
know  thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus 
Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent.  I  have  glori- 
fied thee  on  the  earth,  I  have  finished  the 
work  which  thou  gavest  me  to  do  ;  and 
now  glorify  thou  me,  O  Father,  with  thy- 
self, with  the  glory  which  I  had,  before  the 
world  was,  with  thee. 


The  answer  to  that  prayer  will 
be  the  glory  of  the  Cross.  The 
glory  of  Christ  is  in  dying  as  the 
victim  of  our  sins  and  rising  again 
as  our  leader,  victorious  over  death 
and  sin ;  He  teaches  that  the  way 
of  true  glory  for  us  also  is  in  the 
Cross  and  its  sequel  of  newness  of 
life  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Jesus  renders  account  of  His  mission.  "  I  have 
manifested  Thy  name  to  the  men  whom  Thou  hast 
given  Me  out  of  the  world.  Thine  they  were  and  to 
Me  Thou  hast  given  them,  and  they  have  kept  Thy 
word.  Now  they  have  known  that  all  things  which 
Thou  hast  given  Me  are  from  Thee  ;  because  the  words 
which  Thou  gavest  Me,  I  have  given  to  them,  and 
they  have  received  them,  and  have  known  in  very 
deed  that  I  came  out  from  Thee,  and  they  have  be- 
lieved that  Thou  didst  send  Me.  I  pray  for  them; 
I  pray  not  for  the  world  but  for  them  whom  Thou  hast 
given  Me,  because  they  are  Thine,  and  all  My  things 
are  Thine,  and  Thine  are  Mine,  and  I  am  glorified 
in  them." 

He  does   not  pray  for  the  world — that   is,   for   His 


642  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

enemies,  in  His  present  outpouring  to  His  Father  ;  but 
rather  on  this  occasion  He  separates  and  distinguishes 
from  all  others  those  who,  like  His  Apostles,  are 
granted  a  special  grace  of  election.  Through  them 
all  men  of  good  will  shall  have  the  fulness  of  His 
mercy  and  the  fruit  of  His  prayers.  Meantime,  He 
postpones  His  own  personal  prayer  for  the  world  and 
for  His  enemies  till  the  solemn  hours  of  His  oblation 
on  the  Cross. 

After   this  He  adverts  to  His  separation  from  His 
Apostles,    and   pleads  with  His   Father   for  their   en- 
lightenment, their  joy,  their  brotherly  unity,  and  their 
security  from  the  taint  of  worldliness.     "And  now  I 
am  not  in  the  world,  and  these  are  in  the  world,  and 
I  come  to  Thee.     Holy  Father,  keep  them  in  Thy 
name,  whom  Thou  hast  given  Me,  that  they  may 
be  one,  as  We  also  are.     While  I  was  with  them, 
I  kept  them  in  Thy   name.     Those  whom  Thou 
gavest  Me  have  I  kept,  and  none  of  them  is  lost, 
but  the  son  of  perdition,  that  the  Scripture  may 
be  fulfilled." 

Again  He  speaks  of  the  world,  meaning  the 
mass  of  men  who  make  the  passing  joys  of  this  life 
the  aim  of  every  exertion.  His  joy,  which  is  to  learn 
the  will  of  His  Father  and  to  do  it  in  every  loving 
act  and  patient  suffering,  is  what  He  leaves  to  His 
disciples.  "And  now  I  come  to  Thee,  and  these 
things  I  speak  in  the  world,  that  they  may  have 
My  joy  filled  in  themselves.  I  have  given  them  Thy 
word ;  and  the  world  hath  hated  them,  because  they 
are  not  of  the  world,  as  I  also  am  not  of  the  world." 
Yet  they  are  not  to  be  physically  separated  from 
worldly-minded  people,  for  they  are  to  be  the  salt  of 
the  earth  and  the  light  of  the  world.  "I  pray  not 
that  Thou  shouldst  take  them  out  of  the  world,  but 


JESUS  PRA  YS  FOR  HIS  CHURCH. 


643 


that  thou  shouldst  keep  them  from  evil.  They  are 
not  of  the  world,  as  I  also  am  not  of  the  world." 
Their  sanctification  is  in  heavenly  wisdom  as  He  had 
imparted  it  to  them.  "Sanctify  them  in  truth;  Thy 
word  is  truth."  This  means  an  interior  enlighten- 
ment and  sanctification  which  flows  into  the  soul  in 
a  manner  similar  to  the  action  of  the  Divine  Nature 
upon  the  human  nature  of  Jesus.  "  As  Thou  hast 
sent  Me  into  the  world,  I  also  have  sent  them  into 
the  world ;  and  for  them  do  I  sanctify  Myself,  that 
they  also  may  be  sanctified  in  truth."  Thus  towards 
the  very  end  He  is  more  than  ever  bent  on  setting 
apart  His  followers  from  ' c  the  world  ' '  ;  the  unknow- 
ing world,  disdaining  Him  and  them ;  the  unloving 
world,  hating  Him  and  them,  or  at  least  hating  His 
maxims;  knowing  and  loving  sensual  joys,  and  greed, 
and  ambition,  despising  lowliness, 
and  generous  unselfishness,  and 
gentle  forgiveness. 

Nothing  was  plainer  in  our  Sa- 
viour's life  than  that  He  was  a 
steadfast  enemy  of  division  and  dis- 
sension ;  and  also  that  He  founded 
but  one  society.  He  did  not  choose 
one  set  of  Apostles  for  Galilee  and 
another  for  Judea.  He  had  but  one 
set  of  Apostles  for  the  whole  world. 
In  His  day  there  was  but  one  church. 
Why  should  we  think  that  He  would 
wish  it  to  be  otherwise  in  our  day  ? 
Our  Redeemer  had  us  in  mind  when 
He  prayed  to  His  Father  for  the 
unity  of  His  Apostles  and  all  their 
spiritual  posterity  to  the  end  of  the  world  :  ' c  And  not 
for  them  only  do  I  pray,  but  for  them  also  who  through 


Holy  Father,  keep  them  in  thy  name 
whom  thou  hast  given  me,  that  they  may 
be  one  as  we  also  are.  And  not  for  them 
only  do  I  pray,  but  for  them  also  who 
through  their  word  shall  believe  in  me  : 
That  they  all  may  be  one,  as  thou,  Father, 
in  me,  and  I  in  thee  :  that  they  also  may 
be  one  in  us  :  that  the  world  may  believe 
that  thou  hast  sent  me.  And  the  glory 
which  thou  hast  given  me,  I  have  giv- 
en to  them  :  that  they  may  be  one,  as  we 
also  are  one.  I  in  them,  and  thou  in  me  : 
that  they  be  made  perfect  in  one;  and  the 
world  may  know  that  thou  hast  sent  me, 
and  hast  loved  them,  as  thou  hast  also 
loved  me.  Father,  I  will  that  where  I  am, 
they  also  whom  thou  hast  given  me  may 
be  with  me  :  that  they  may  see  my  glory 
which  thou  hast  given  me,  because  thou 
hast  loved  me  before  the  creation  of  the 
world.  Just  Father,  the  world  hath  not 
known  thee  :  but  I  have  known  thee :  and 
these  have  known,  that  thou  hast  sent  me. 
And  I  have  made  known  thy  name  to  them, 
and  will  make  it  known  ;  that  the  love, 
wherewith  thou  hast  loved  me,  may  be  in 
them,  and  I  in  them. 


644 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


"  Over  the  brook  Cedron 


their  word  shall  believe  in  Me ;  that  they  all  may  be 
one,  as  Thou  Father  in  Me  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they 
also  may  be  one  in  us."  Even  as  a  sign  of  His  own 
mission  does  He  set  this  mark  of  unity ;  for  He  adds : 
"  that  the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  hast  sent  Me." 
And  how  perfect  this  unity  shall  be,  in  mind  and 
in  heart — that  is,  in  belief  and  love — is  shown  by  His 
insisting  with  His  Father  that  His  followers  shall  be 
joined  together  as  the  persons  of  the  Godhead  are 
joined  to  each  other.  Christians  are  one  through 
faith,  charity,  and  obedience,  their  souls  made  one  by 
the  indwelling  Paraclete,  as  the  Father  and  Son  are 
one  by  the  Holy  Ghost  proceeding  from  both ;  and 
their  bodily  lives  are  blended  into  one  organism  by  the 
unity  of  the  Church  and  the  loving  peacefulness  of 
Christ  in  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Eucharist.  This 
unity  is  their  glory,  as  His  unity  with  the  Father  is 
His  glory. 

He  then  concludes  with  a  touching  appeal  to  His 
Father  to  give  His  beloved  fol- 
lowers in  all  ages  a  share  in  His 
own  dignity — to  carry  the  cross 
and  to  conquer  death  and  hell, 
that  finally  "they  may  see  the 
glory  which  Thou  hast  given  Me, 
because  Thou  hast  loved  Me  be- 
fore the  creation  of  the  world." 

And  so  Jesus  ended  His  prayer. 
Who  can   read  it  and   fail  to  see 
that  Jesus  claimed  the  divine  attri- 
wasagarden."butes,    the  divine   eternity   before 
the    creation,     that    He    asserted 

His  divine  nature  in  oneness  with  the  Father? 
And  who  can  fail  to  know  by  it  the  mind  of  Jesus 
about  Christian  unity  in  organizing  His  Church,  since 


yzstrs  BEGIXS  tits  PASSIOM.  645 

He  gives  it  the  unity  of  God  as  its  bond  ?  And  how 
plain  is  the  Church's  infallible  security  in  the  true 
Christian  doctrine,  since  her  unity  is  that  of  truth, 
her  sanctification  is  in  truth,  her  mission  into  the 
world  is  similar  to  His  own  mission.  "  As  Thou  hast 
sent  Me  into  the  world,  I  also  have  sent  them  into  the 
world."  Thus  the  Church  of  Christ  by  faith  unites 
men's  understandings  into  the  visible  unity  of  her 
organism ;  and  unites  their  hearts  into  one  loving 
brotherhood  through  the  Holy  Communion  of  Christ's 
body  and  blood  in  the  Eucharist. 


CHAPTER   XXXVII. 

JESUS   BEGINS   HIS   PASSION. 

Matt.  xxvi.  30-38;  Markxiv.  26-35;  Lukexxii.  39-40; 
John  xviii.  i. 

JESUS  began  His  Passion  at  His 
usual  place  of  prayer  on  the  Mount 
of  Olives.  Having  finished  His  last 
discourse  and  the  invocation  to  the 
Father,  He  left  the  supper- room  and 
led  His  Apostles  eastward  along  the 
road  to  Bethany.  "  When  Jesus  had 
said  these  things,  a  hymn  being  sung,  He  went  forth 
with  His  disciples,  according  to  His  custom,  to  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  over  the  brook  Cedron,  where  there 
was  a  garden."  Four  hundred  and  eighty  feet  from  the 
gate  of  the  city  they  crossed  the  bridge  over  the  tor- 
rent, and  a  few  moments  afterwards  reached  the  olive 
orchard  on  the  hill-side. 

While  on  the  way  Jesus  renewed  His  warnings  to 
the  disciples.  His  purpose  was  to  strengthen  them  be- 
forehand against  depression  of  spirits.  He  did  so  by 


646  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

telling  them  that  He  would  rise  again  and  lead  them 
back  to  their  native  province  to  finish  His  instruc- 
tions. "And  Jesus  saith  to  them:  You  will  all  be 
scandalized  in  My  regard  this  night.  For  it  is  written : 
I  will  strike  the  shepherd,  and  the  sheep  shall  be 
dispersed.  But  after  I  shall  be  risen  again,  I  will  go 
before  you  into  Galilee."  Peter  took  offence  at  this, 
and  repeated  his  boast  of  fidelity  to  the  Master,  and 
thereby  drew  from  Him  a  repetition  of  the  prophecy 
of  his  fall.  "But  Peter  saith  to  Him:  Although  all 
shall  be  scandalized  in  Thee,  yet  not  I.  And  Jesus 
saith  to  him :  Amen  I  say  to  thee,  to-day,  even  in  this 
night,  before  the  cock  crow  twice,  thou  shalt  deny 
Me  thrice.  But  he  spoke  the  more  vehemently  :  Al- 
though I  should  die  together  with  Thee,  I  will  not 
deny  Thee.  And  in  like  manner  also  said  they  all.'* 
They  were  conscious  of  loyalty,  but  alas !  not  of  that 
other  virtue  which  is  the  test  of  all  virtues — humility. 
"  Then  Jesus  came  with  them  to  a  country  place, 
which  is  called  Gethsemani ;  and  He  said  to  His  dis- 
ciples :  Sit  you  here  till  I  go  yonder  and  pray."  Upon 
the  slope  of  the  hill  and  to  the  right  of  the  road, 
as  one  goes  eastward,  was  a  little  grove  or  garden 
of  olive-trees.  There  Jesus  tarried  for  a  moment, 
gathered  the  eleven  about  Him,  and  selecting  Peter, 
James,  and  John  as  His  immediate  escort,  bade  the 
others  to  wait  for  His  return.  With  His  three  com- 
panions He  went  out  from  the  shadow  of  the  trees  into 
the  pale  light  of  the  paschal  moon.  "  And  He  taketh 
Peter  and  James  and  John  with  Him,  and  He  began 
to  fear  and  to  be  heavy."  The  dread  moment  had  ar- 
rived, the  awful  Agony  in  the  Garden.  Our  Saviour's 
mental  crucifixion  was  begun :  ' '  And  He  saith  to 
them  :  My  soul  is  sorrowful  even  unto  death ;  stay  you 
here  and  watch." 


JESUS  BEGINS  HIS  PASSION.  647 

They  were  not  faithful  watchers,  however;  as  yet 
they  lacked  the  grace  of  Christian  sympathy.  But 
they  and  all  true  lovers  of  Christ  have  since  that  sad 
hour  been  watchers  in  spirit  at  Gethsemani  and  on 
Calvary.  The  saints  have  all  been  deeply  penetrated 
by  the  lessons  of  that  night  of  the  Saviour's  spiritual 
desolation  and  that  day  of  bodily  torment  which  fol- 
lowed it.  "For  myself,  dear  brethren,"  says  St. 
Bernard — and  he  speaks  the  universal  sentiment  of  de- 
vout souls — "from  the  first  beginning  of  my  con- 
version, seeing  myself  to  be  wanting  in  all  virtues,  I 
took  to  myself  this  bundle  of  myrrh,  made  up  of  all 
my  Saviour's  bitter  sufferings,  of  the  privations  He 
endured  in  His  infancy,  the  toils  He  underwent  in  His 
ministry,  the  weariness  He  suffered  in  His  journeyings, 
His  watching  in  prayer,  His  fasting  and  temptation, 
His  tears  of  compassion,  the  snares  laid  to  catch  Him 
in  His  words,  His  perils  among  false  brethren,  the 
insults,  the  blows,  the  mockeries,  the  nails  ;  the  sor- 
rows, in  short,  of  all  kinds  which  He  endured  for  the 
salvation  of  men.  I  have  found  wisdom  to  consist  in 
meditation  upon  these  things,  and  I  have  discovered 
that  here  alone  is  the  perfection  of  justice,  the  ful- 
ness of  wisdom,  the  riches  of  salvation,  and  the 
abundance  of  merit ;  here  is  that  which  raises  me  in 
depression,  moderates  me  in  success,  and  makes  me 
to  walk  safely  in  the  royal  road  between  the  goods 
and  the  evils  of  this  life,  removing,  on  each  side,  the 
perils  which  threaten  my  way.  Therefore,  also,  it 
is  that  I  have  these  things  always  in  my  mouth,  as 
you  know,  and  that  I  have  them  always  in  my  heart, 
as  God  knows;  they  are  ever  on  my  pen,  as  all  men 
may  see  ;  and  the  most  sublime  philosophy  which  I 
have  in  this  world  is  to  know  Jesus,  and  Jesus 
crucified." 


648  LIFE  OF  JESVS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

THE   AGONY   IN   THE   GARDEN. 

Matt.  xxvi.  39-46  ;  Mark  xiv.  35-42  ;  Luke  xxii.  41-46. 

HE  took  the  road  out  of  Jerusalem  and 
across  the  brook  Cedron  that  David  had  taken 
when  he  fled  from  Absalom  ;  but  Jesus,  unlike 
David,  does  not  fly  from  His  enemies.  He  goes 
to  meet  them  and  to  give  Himself  up  to  them. 
And  first  of  all  he  surrenders  His  soul  to  a 
perfect  knowledge  of  our  sins.  The  most  hate- 
ful company  He  had  ever  to  suffer  was  the  full 
realization  of  human  ingratitude. 

"And  He  was  withdrawn  from  them  a 
stone's  cast."  The  place  where  Jesus  stationed 
the  three  watchers  was  on  the  upper  or  easterly 
side  of  the  wall  enclosing  the  olive-trees.  After 
leaving  them  He  passed  northward  along  the 
wall,  crossing  the  road  from  the  city  which 
skirts  the  enclosure  on  the  north  side.  At 
some  spot  near  the  road,  He  stopped  and  de- 
livered Himself  up  to  the  first  and  incomparably  the 
most  painful  torment  of  His  Passion  :  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  sins  of  mankind.  Doubtless  this  conscious- 
ness of  our  sins  was  not  all  His  suffering  in  the  Gar- 
den, for  He  felt  by  anticipation  the  terrible  events 
of  that  night  and  the  morrow.  But  the  reason  of  it 
all  was  mortal  sin,  and  for  that  Jesus  now  atoned  by 
a  mental  agony  far  more  intense  than  the  shame  and 
the  excruciation  of  Good  Friday.  When  dying  He 
shall  say,  "  My  God,  My  God,  why  hast  Thou  forsaken 
Me  !  ' '  That  desolation  begins  now.  The  stern  j  ustice  of 
the  Father  delivers  Jesus  over  to  sin  as  to  an  execu- 
tioner. 


THE  AGONY  IN  THE  GARDEN. 


649 


Jesus  was  a  victim  of  the  conflict  of  His  two  great 
loves  :  His  love  of  us  His  brethren,  and  His  love  of  God 
His  Father.  In  proportion  to  His  love  for  us  was  His 
terror  at  the  wrath  of  His  Father  against  us  for  our 
sins  ;  in  proportion  to  His  love  for  His  Father  was 
His  loathing  for  us  on  account  of  our  ingratitude  to 
His  Father.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  the  Psalmist 
when  he  says  Jesus  suffered  "the  sorrows  of  hell." 

As  He  crossed  the  road  it  seemed  as  if  He  had 
suddenly  entered  hell,  so  unspeak- 
ably bitter  was  the  torture  which  im- 
mediately seized  His  spirit.  And 
indeed  it  was  His  purpose  to  suffer 
the  torments  of  the  damned  in  order 
that  men  might  escape  them.  Here, 
then,  the  human  soul  of  Jesus  was 
made  to  appreciate  as  never  before 
what  sin  is,  to  realize  the  offended 
majesty  of  God,  and,  in  conjunction 
with  that,  the  awful  calamity  of  be- 
ing a  lost  soul.  To  use  a  feeble 
comparison,  He  was  like  an  inno- 
cent man  who  has  contrived  by  means 
of  a  disguise  to  take  his  guilty  bro- 
ther's place  in  the  prisoner's  dock, 


And  he  was  withdrawn  away  from  them 
a  stone's  cast ;  and  kneeling  down,  he  fell 
flat  on  the  ground,  and  he  prayed  that  if  it 
might  be,  the  hour  might  pass  from  him. 
And  he  said  :  Abba,  Father,  all  things  are 
possible  to  thee  :  remove  this  chalice  from 
me  ;  but  not  what  I  will,  but  what  thou 
wilt.  And  he  cometh  to  his  disciples  and 
findeth  them  asleep.  And  he  said  to  Peter : 
What !  couldst  thou  not  watch  one  hour 
with  me  ?  Watch  ye  and  pray  that  ye  en- 
ter not  into  temptation.  The  spirit  indeed 
is  willing,  but  the  flesh  weak.  Again  he 
went  the  second  time  and  prayed,  saying : 
O  my  Father,  if  this  chalice  cannot  pass 
away  unless  I  drink  it,  thy  will  be  done. 
And  he  cometh  again,  and  findeth  them 
asleep,  for  their  eyes  were  heavy.  And 
leaving  them  he  went  away  again,  and  he 
prayed  the  third  time,  saying  the  same 
words.  And  there  appeared  to  him  an 
Angel  from  Heaven  strengthening  him. 
And  being  in  an  agony,  he  prayed  the 
longer.  And  his  sweat  became  as  drops  of 
blood  trickling  down  upon  the  ground. 


and  in  his  stead  to  be  tried  for  an  atrocious  crime,  con- 
demned and  executed.  Infinite  holiness  disguises  itself 
as  pride  and  sensuality  and  becomes  the  victim  of  the 
sinner's  wickedness.  The  whole  shame  and  degra- 
dation of  sin,  the  entire  agony  of  punishment  for  sin, 
entered  into  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  Jesus  as 
poison  would  have  entered  His  blood  had  He  drunk 
a  cup  of  it :  hence,  "  let  this  cup  pass  from  me"  was 
the  prayer  that  sprang  to  His  lips  in  the  horror  of 
His  first  moments  alone. 


650  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

The   cup   of  blessing    (I.    Cor.   x.   16),   which   He 
had  given  us  a  short  while  before,  is  now  recompensed 
by   the  cup  of  malediction  thrust  upon   Him  by  our 
vices.     It  agonizes  Him  to  that  degree  that  His  hu- 
man heart  craves  relief.     "O  My  Father!    if  it  be 
possible    let  this    cup  pass    from    Me."     His 
.  prayer,  thrice  repeated,  is  refused,  and  His  sub- 
prayed  that  the  mission  is  true,  absolute,  and  universal:  "  Not 
hour  might  pass  from  Him."      My  will  but  Thine  be  done,"  submission  with- 
out exception  or   qualification,  total  and   irrevocable, 
mere  obedience,  the  displacement  of  His  own  will  by 
that  of  the  Father. 

He  was  made  to  know  all  sins,  in  themselves  and 
in  their  circumstances  and  surroundings,  the  wilful- 
ness  of  sin  and  its  folly,  the  aggravating  accompani- 
ments, the  countless  repetition  of  sins,  the  relapses 
after  pardon ;  all  this,  with  a  perfect  knowledge  and  a 
vivid  imagination,  did  its  work  upon  His  sensitive 
soul,  plunging  Him  into  a  condition  of  agony  which 
appalled  even  so  lofty  a  courage  as  His.  It  was  from 
this  ordeal  that  He  shrank ;  He  was  horrified  to  find 
Himself  feeling  guilty  of  every  sin,  realizing  the  re- 
morse, the  shame,  the  eternal  despair  of  sin,  becom- 
ing, as  it  were,  responsible  for  every  sin  in  all  re- 
spects except  personal  guilt ;  such  was  the  Saviour's 
doom.  He  instinctively  recoiled  from  it.  "He  fell 
flat -on  the  ground,  and  He  prayed  that  if  it  might  be, 
the  hour  might  pass  from  Him.  And  He  said  :  Abba, 
Father,  all  things  are  possible  to  Thee;  remove  this 
chalice  from  Me  ;  but  not  what  I  will,  but  what  Thou 
wilt." 

Here,  then,  began  the  crisis  of  our  atonement. 
"The  High-Priest  of  the  law,"  says  St.  Francis  de 
Sales,  "wore  upon  his  back  and  upon  his  breast  the 
names  of  the  children  of  Israel  engraven  on  precious 


THE  AGONY  IN  THE  GARDEN. 


651 


stones.  Ah  !  behold  Jesus,  our  chief  bishop,  and  see 
how  from  the  instant  of  His  conception  He  bore  us 
upon  His  shoulders,  undertaking  the  charge  of  re- 
deeming us  by  His  death,  even  the  death  of  the 


"  He  findeth  them  asleep." 

Cross.  O  Theotimus,  Theotimus,  this  soul  of  our  Sa- 
viour knew  us  all  by  name  and  by  surname ;  but 
above  all  in  the  day  of  His  Passion,  when  He  offered 
His  tears,  His  prayers,  His  blood  and  His  life  for 


652  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

all,  He  breathed  in  particular  for  thee  these  thoughts 
of  love :  Ah,  My  eternal  Father,  I  take  to  myself 
and  charge  Myself  with  all  poor  Theotimus's  sins, 
to  undergo  torments  and  death  that  he  may  be 
freed  from  them,  and  that  he  may  not  perish  but 
live.  Let  Me  die  so  that  he  may  live ;  let  Me  be 
crucified  so  he  may  be  glorified.  O  sovereign  love 
of  the  heart  of  Jesus,  what  heart  can  ever  bless  Thee 
as  devotedly  as  it  ought?"  (The  Love  of  God,  Book 
XII.  chap.  12).  This  explains  the  meaning  of  His 
saying,  "My  soul  is  sorrowful  even  unto  death."  It 
was  all  the  death  that  an  immortal  soul  could  suffer. 
The  forces  of  a  spirit  cannot  be  dissolved,  the  facul- 
ties of  thought  and  love  cannot  rot  and  perish  like 
flesh  and  blood. 

But  to  know  the  mystery  of  sin  and  to  feel  the 
insolence  and  ingratitude  of  it  as  Jesus  did,  and  to 
realize  perfectly  the  divine  hatred  for  it,  is  to  be 
wounded  fatally  in  every  capacity  of  joy. 

But  Jesus,  if  He  shrank  from  this  woe  and  prayed 
His  Father  to  remove  it,  did  not  do  so  uncondi- 
tionally. If  the  Father  insisted,  He  was  obedient  un- 
to this  mental  death.  The  spell  of  the  Father's  will 
was  upon  Him.  "  Not  My  will  but  Thine  be  done," 
He  prayed  :  and  as  often  as  He  drew  away  from  His 
self-chosen  agony  so  often  did  He  return  to  it.  Con- 
solation from  the  Father  there  was  none  ;  the  heav- 
ens were  dark  and  silent.  The  loving  heart  of  Jesus 
sought  consolation  therefore  in  the  sympathy  of  His 
disciples,  the  chosen  three.  "  And  He  cometh  to  His 
disciples  and  findeth  them  asleep.  And  He  said  to 
Peter :  What !  could  you  not  watch  one  hour  with 
Me?"  How  touching  an  appeal!  How  sad  a  dis- 
appointment !  Peter  could  boast  of  heroic  fidelity, 
readiness  for  chains  and  even  death  rather  than  deny 


THE  AGONY  IN  THE  GARDEN.  653 

his   Master.     But  lie  could  not  keep   awake   for  His 
sake   a  single  hour.     The  awful   agony  expressed   in 
the  words  of  Jesus,  "My  soul  is  sorrowful  even  unto 
death,"  could  not  haunt  away  the  heaviness  of  sleep 
from  the   Apostles.      Judas  could   watch,   and 
was  then  watching   and   waiting   for   his   prey 
like  a  sleepless  tiger,  and  he  did  it  for  money. 
Peter    could   not  watch  for  love.     Jesus  pitied 
him,  and  gave  him  and  the  others  a  final  warn- 
ing.    "Watch  ye   and  pray  that  ye  enter  not 
into  temptation."     And  then,  as  if  moralizing 
on  their  weakness  and  palliating  it,  He  said  : 
"The   spirit   indeed   is  willing,  but   the   flesh 

r  "And  being  m  an  agony,  He 

is  weak."  prayed  the  longer." 

Back  again  He  went  into  "  the  mire  of  the  deep," 
as  the  prophet  calls  His  desolation,  and  generously 
opening  out  His  mind  and  heart  to  the  pains  of  the 
damned  He  took  them  into  His  soul.  "Again  He 
went  the  second  time  and  prayed,  saying  :  O  My 
Father,  if  this  chalice  cannot  pass  away  unless  I  drink 
it,  Thy  will  be  done."  How  long  He  stayed  there, 
across  that  road  which  seemed  to  be  the  dead-line 
of  His  soul,  there  is  no  record.  He  stood  His  ground, 
He  faced  these  foes  of  the  spirit  world,  not  with  the 
ordinary  valor  of  one  who  hopes  to  conquer,  but  with 
a  more  intense  degree  of  that  desperate  bravery  of 
love  and  loyalty  which  inspires  the  soldiers  of  the 
forlorn  hope  as  they  mount  the  fiery  breach,  fight- 
ing with  the  certainty  of  being  sacrificed,  that  the 
men  who  follow  may  win  the  citadel. 

When  He  was  again  overcharged  with  the  horrors 
of  sin  and  of  its  penalties,  He  came  back  a  second 
time,  no  doubt  fainting  with  His  misery,  to  seek  the 
company  of  His  disciples.  Our  Lord  had  taken  an 
enormous  disproportion  of  the  night's  burden ;  He 


654 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST, 


agreed  to  suffer  if  the  three  disciples  would  but  watch. 
They  would  not  or  could  not  be  His  partners  in  even 
this  generous  allotment.  He  was  once  more  disap- 
pointed. "And  He  cometh  again,  and  findeth  them 
asleep,  for  their  eyes  were  heavy.  And  leaving  them 
He  went  away  again,  and  He  prayed  the  third  time, 
saying  the  same  words."  This  time  He  fought  it  out  to 
the  end.  He  outstayed  the  period  of  the  Father's  allot- 
ment of  bitterness.  All  that  thought  and  affection, 
gratitude  and  appreciation,  could  suffer  from  insult  and 
contempt  ;  all  that  is  meant  by  disappointment,  chagrin, 
failure  ;  all  that  hell  could  do  to  an  innocent  soul, 
all  this  Jesus  suffered  that  we  might  escape  it.  At 
length  the  end  approached.  The  Father  had  not,  in- 
deed, relaxed  His  justice  ;  the  soul  of  Jesus  had  been 
crucified.  But  the  paternal  love  sent  a  messenger 
of  consolation.  "And  there  appeared  to  Him  an  angel 
from  heaven  strengthening  Him." 

The  angel  ministers  to  Him,   but  does  not  release 
Him.     Nothing   more  clearly  shows  the  extremity  of 
our   Saviour's    agony    than    His  recourse    to    angels 
when  men    had   failed    Him.     The  angel 
was  forbidden  to  announce  from  the  Fa- 
ther the  reversal  of  the  decree,  that  men's 
sins  were  to   become  Jesus'  own ; 
the    heavenly  messenger  was  not 
permitted  to  unclothe  Him  of  our 

And  He  cometh  again,  and  findeth  them     J 

infamy.      He  had  kind  sympathy 

to  offer,  but  the  shame  of  being  the  first  born  among 
so  many  treacherous  brethren  sank  slowly  deeper  and 
deeper  into  the  soul  of  Jesus  under  the  pitying  glances 
of  the  celestial  spirit. 

4<  And  being  in  an  agony,  He  prayed  the  longer." 
But  the  agony,  at  least  in  its  bitterest  suffering,  was 
over.  The  angel  solaced  His  spirit  with  messages 


AGONY  IN  THE  GARDEN.  655 

from  the  Father,  and  helped  Him  to  end  His  direful 
task  with  prayers  of  less  terrible  protest.  But  when 
He  arose  and  wiped  the  sweat  from  His  face  He  found 
blood  mingled  with  it ;  it  was  oozing  out  from  every 
pore.  "And  His  sweat  became  as  drops  of  blood 
trickling  down  upon  the  ground."  The  spasms  of 
His  heart  had  driven  the  blood  of  the  Saviour  with 
such  force  as  to  cause  it  to  overflow  its  channels. 

If  Jesus  had  suffered  an  indescribable  agony  in  the 
Garden,  He  also  had  gathered  an  increase  of  cour- 
age from  His  fortitude  and  His  prayers.  For  when 
He  realized  that  His  hour  was  at  hand  He  arose,  wiped 
the  blood-stained  sweat  from  His  face,  and  calling  to 
His  Apostles  to  follow  Him,  calmly  advanced  towards 
His  enemies  to  give  Himself  up  to  them.  There  shall 
be  no  further  sign  of  fear  in  Him,  or  of  other  emotion, 
till  "all  things  are  accomplished." 

Strengthened  in  soul  by  this  mighty  prayer, 
though  doubtless  quite  worn  out  in  body,  the  Sa- 
viour returned  the  third  and  last  time  to  His  Apos- 
tles "and  findeth  them  sleeping  from  sorrow,"  for 
it  is  known  that  excessive  grief  often  brings  on  a 
dozing  state.  "He  saith  to  them:  Sleep  ye  now 
and  take  your  rest."  This  indicates  a  further  con- 
ference with  the  angel,  or  the  quiet  passing  of  some 
interval  of  time  before  the  arrest  of  Jesus.  Finally, 
knowing  that  the  traitor  and  his  band  of  soldiers  were 
approaching,  He  awakened  the  three  Apostles,  say- 
ing, "It  is  enough,  the  hour  is  come";  they  all  re- 
turned to  the  olive  grove  and  awakened  the  other 
eight,  and  then  He  moved  out  calmly  at  their  head 
to  meet  His  foes.  "  Behold  the  Son  of  Man  shall  be 
betrayed  into  the  hands  of  sinners.  Rise  up,  let  us 
go.  Behold  he  that  will  betray  Me  is  at  hand." 


656 


LIFE  OP  JESUS  CHXIST. 


"And 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

JESUS  IS  BETRAYED   WITH   A   KISS. 

Matt.  xxvi.  47—50  ;  Mark  xiv.  43—46  ;  Luke  xxii.  47-48  ; 
John  xviii.  2-9. 

THE  traitor  must  have  led  his  band  to  the  Garden 
across  a  bridge  lower  down  the  brook  Cedron  than 
the  one  used  by  Jesus  and  His  disciples  earlier  in  the 
evening,  if  the  tradition  is  true  which  marks  the  spot 
of  our  Saviour's  arrest  south  of  the  enclosure  of 
olive-trees.  The  traitor  had  many  times  prayed 
there  with  his  Master.  "And  Judas  also,  who  be- 
trayed Him,  knew  the  place,  because  Jesus  had  often 
resorted  thither  together  with  His  disciples."  He 
knew  the  way  by  night  as  well  as  by  day,  but  they 
took  lanterns,  lest  Jesus  should  be  hidden  in  some  of 
the  dark  ravines  or  grottoes.  "  Judas  therefore,  hav- 
ing received  a  band  of  soldiers  and  servants  from 
the  chief  priests  and  the  Pharisees, 
cometh  thither  with  lanterns  and  torches 
and  weapons."  He  led  a  detachment 
from  the  Roman  garrison,  a  part  also 
of  the  armed  guard  or  police  of  the  Tem- 
ple, and  with  them  went  some  of  the 
priests  themselves ;  it  was  their  servants 
who  carried  the  bludgeons.  The  sol- 
diers could  easily  be  had,  for  all  this 
week  they  were  held  in  readiness  day 
and  night  to  quell  disturbances  incident 
to  the  great  gathering  at  the  paschal 
solemnities. 

That  the  arrest  should  be  sudden,  and 
if  possible  bloodless,  was  doubtless  the 
purpose  of  all  concerned  in  it,  especially 


Him." 


JESUS  IS  BETKA  YED  WITH  A  KISS. 


657 


[And  JudasJ  went  before  them  and 
drew  near  to  Jesus  to  kiss  him.  [For  he] 
had  given  them  a  sign,  saying :  Whomso- 
ever I  shall  kiss,  that  is  he  ;  lay  hold  on 
him  and  lead  him  away  carefully.  And 
when  he  was  come,  immediately  going  up 
to  him,  he  said  :  Hail,  Rabbi !  and  he 
kissed  him.  And  Jesus  said  to  him : 
Friend,  whereto  art  thou  come  ?  Judas, 
dost  thou  betray  the  Son  of  Man  with  a 
kiss  ?  Jesus  therefore,  knowing  all  things 
that  should  come  upon  him,  went  forward 
and  said  to  them  :  Whom  seek  ye  ?  They 
answered  him  :  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Jesus 
saith  to  them  :  I  am  he.  And  Judas  also 
who  betrayed  him,  stood  with  them.  As 
soon  then  as  he  had  said  to  them  :  I  am 
he,  they  went  backward,  and  fell  to  the 
ground.  Again  therefore  he  asked  them  : 
Whom  seek  ye  ?  And  they  said  :  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  Jesus  answered  :  I  have  told 
you  that  I  am  he  ;  if  therefore  you  seek 
me,  let  these  go  their  way ;  that  the  word 
might  be  fulfilled  which  he  said  :  Of  them 
whom  thou  hast  given  me,  I  have  not  lost 
any  one.  Then  they  came  up  and  laid 
hands  upon  him  and  held  him. 


the  Roman  officers.  Hence  the  kiss 
of  Judas  as  a  means  of  identifying 
Jesus.  It  was  the  usual  mode  of 
greeting  between  the  loving  Master 
and  His  Apostles  on  meeting  after 
a  separation.  It  was  an  aggrava- 
tion of  Judas 's  treachery,  the  same 
mouth  spitting  out  the  venom  of 
treason,  "  Hail,  Rabbi!"  while  it 
mocked  the  victim  with  a  kiss. 
The  caress  of  love  shall  be  the  stab 
of  treason. 

The  patient  meekness  of  Jesus 
was  never  better  shown  than  in  His 
receiving  that  kiss,  and  addressing 
Judas  with  the  holy  name  of  Friend. 
The  questions  which  He  asked,  the 
absence  of  all  anger  in  His  sad  words,  associated  with 
the  power  of  His  very  glance  to  cast  His  enemies  to 
the  ground,  and,  had  He  so  willed  it,  to  annihilate 
them,  to  say  nothing  of  His  full  liberty  to  escape,  and 
finally  His  loving  care  that  His  disciples  should  go  un- 
molested— all  this  forms  a  scene  of  marvellous  affec- 
tion, as  well  as  a  vivid  contrast  between  perfect  love 
and  satanic  hate. 

Jesus  delivers  Himself  to  them  now,  though  many 
times  before  He  had  released  Himself.  Then  they 
had  the  will,  but  He  had  withheld  from  them  the 
power.  Now  He  has  the  power  to  save  Himself,  but 
Ht  has  not  the  will.  He  had  surrendered  to  His 
Father  before  doing  so  to  them.  "  The  chalice  which 
My  Father  hath  given  Me,  shall  I  not  drink  it?" 

The>-  bind  the  hands  of  Jesus.  Herein  He  gives 
us  a  lesson  of  how  far  obedience  may  lawfully  be 
carried;  for  He  allows  His  omnipotent  hands  to  be 


658  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

bound,  and  by  such  atrocious  wretches  as  these,  that 
He  may  be  wholly  submissive  to  His  Father's  good 
pleasure. 

The  avarice  which  actuated  the  awful  treason  of 
Judas  is  all  the  more  fearful  because  in  contrast  with 
one  of  our  Saviour's  conspicuous  virtues,  love  of 
poverty  and  contempt  for  riches. 

The  greatest  crime  ever  committed  was  this  be- 
trayal ;  and  it  was  conceived  and  determined  in  the 
holiest  sanctuary  ever  known  to  men,  the  personal 
company  of  the  Son  of  God.  Was  there  ever  a 
spectacle  equal  to  this  embrace  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
Judas,  the  one  whispering  a  last  appeal  for  repent- 
ance, and  the  other  thinking  only  of  finishing  his 
horrible  work  of  betrayal  ? 


CHAPTER   XL. 

THK  RESISTANCE  OF  THE  APOSTLES  AND  THEIR  FUGHT. 

Matt.  xxvi.  51—56  ;  Mark  xiv.  47-52  ;  Luke  xxii.  49-53  ; 
John  xviii.  zo,  n. 

WHEN  Jesus  was  seized  the  disciples  were  still 
close  to  Him.  They  were  not  to  slink  away  in 
utter  cowardice.  "And  they  that  were  about  Him, 
seeing  what  would  follow,  said  to  Him  :  I,ord,  shall  we 
strike  with  the  sword?  "  Peter,  ever  eager  and  rash, 
waited  not  for  an  answer.  "Then  Simon  Peter,  hav- 
ing a  sword,  drew  it,  and  struck  the  servant  of  the 
High-Priest,  and  cut  off  his  right  ear.  And  the  name 
of  the  servant  was  Malchus."  Bloodshed,  thus  add- 
ing its  furious  stimulus,  increased  the  excitement  to- 
gether with  the  confusion  of  voices  and  the  crowding 
in  of  the  guards  and  attendants.  But  the  calm  tones 
of  the  Master  arose,  saving  His  foolhardy  followers 


RESISTANCE  AND  FLIGHT  OF  THE  APOSTLES.     659 

from  instant  destruction,  and  showing  what  kind  of 
force  may  not  be  used  in  His  defence.  "  But  Jesus  an- 
swering said :  Surfer  ye  thus  far.  And  when  He  had 
touched  his  ear  He  healed  him.  Then  Jesus  said  to 
Peter:  Put  up  again  thy  sword  into  its  place.  For 
all  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  with  the  sword. 
Thinkest  thou  that  I  cannot  ask  My  Father,  and  He 
will  give  Me  presently  more  than  twelve  legions  of 
angels?  How  then  shall  the  Scripture  be  fulfilled, 
that  so  it  must  be  done?  "  The  curing  of  Malchus's 
ear  was  the  last  miracle  of  Jesus  till  He  rose  from  the 
dead,  except  the  spiritual  ones  of  pardoning  Peter,  and 
then  the  thief  and  the  conspirators  upon  Calvary.  His 
latest  miracles  were  in  favor  of  His  enemies.  And 
then  He  turned  His  thoughts  to  the  stern  obedience 
His  love  had  plighted  to  His  Father.  "The  chalice 
which  My  Father  hath  given  Me,  shall  I  not  drink 
it?"* 

And  now  having  taught  His  friends  a  last  lesson  of 
peace,  He  turned  to  His  enemies.  They  had  come 
out  against  Him  as  if  to  besiege  a  robber  chief  in 
his  den.  They  started  forth  to  quell  a  sedition — the 
offence  He  was  least  capable  of  committing — and  they 
had  found  an  unresisting  Teacher  of  pardon  and  peace. 
To  the  leaders  Jesus  now  made  His  reproaches.  As 
the  soldiers  were  binding  His  hands,  and  His  dis- 
ciples were  fleeing  away,  "Jesus  said  to  the  chief 
priests  and  magistrates  of  the  Temple,  and  the  ancients 
that  were  come  unto  Him  :  Are  you  come  out  as  it 
were  against  a  thief,  with  swords  and  clubs  to  appre- 
hend Me  ?  I  sat  daily  with  you  teaching  in  the 
Temple,  and  you  laid  not  hands  on  Me  ;  but  this  is 

*  Some  commentators  read  an  allegory  in  this  incident— that  force 
used  for  religious  ends  has  its  usual  effect  in  cutting  off  the  ears  of  the 
enemies  of  Jesus  :  that  is,  in  deafening  them  to  His  doctrine. 


660  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CffKIST. 

your  hour  and  the  power  of  darkness.  Now  all  this 
was  done,  that  the  Scriptures  of  the  prophets  might 
be  fulfilled.  Then  His  disciples  leaving  Him,  all  fled 
away." 

What  follows  in  St.  Mark's  Gospel  is  the  singular 
incident  of  the  young  man  and  his  night-garment. 
"And  a  certain  young  man  followed  Him,  having  a 
linen  cloth  cast  about  his  naked  body,  and  they  laid  hold 
on  him.  But  he,  casting  off  the  linen  cloth,  fled  from 
them  naked."  It  is  certain  that  St.  Mark,  who  alone 
relates  this  occurrence,  lived  with  his  mother  in  Jeru- 
salem at  a  later  date  (Acts  xii.  12).  Probably  he 
lived  there  at  this  time  also,  and  many  have  sup- 
posed that  the  Last  Supper  was  celebrated  in  his 
house.  Hearing  the  noise  of  the  band  of  soldiers,  who 
perhaps  searched  that  house  on  their  way  out,  Mark, 
it  is  presumed,  had  followed  them  with  the  result 
that  he  narrates. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

JESUS    IS    LED     BEFORE   ANNAS    AND     CAIPHAS. THE 

DENIAL   OF   PETER. 

Matt.  xxvi.  57-72;  Mark  xiv.  53-70;  Luke  x xii.  5 4-58 ; 
John  xviii.  12-25. 

' '  THEN  the  band  and  the  tribune  and  the  servants 
of  the  Jews  took  Jesus  and  bound  Him.  And  they 
led  Him  away  to  Annas  first,  for  he  was  father-in- 
law  to  Caiphas,  who  was  high-priest  of  that  year." 
They  probably  returned  by  the  way  they  had  come : 
the  lower  bridge  over  the  Cedron  and  thence  along 
the  south  side  of  the  Temple  up  to  Mount  Sion. 
Various  traditions  point  out  on  Mount  Sion  the  site 
of  Annas 's  house  and  that  of  Caiphas,  as  well  as  of 


JESUS  IS  LED  bEFORE  ANNAS  AND  CAIPHAS.  661 

the  room  in  which  our  Saviour  passed  the  hours  of 
this  terrible  night  after  the  high-priests  had  tried 
Him.  But  what  is  certain  from  the  sacred  narrative 
is,  that  He  was  thrice  arraigned  before  the  Jewish 
authority ;  that  is  to  say,  once  before  Annas, 
then  before  Caiphas  presiding  over  the  San- 
hedrin.  These  two  trials  were  on  Thursday 
night.  The  third  was  by  the  Sanhedrin  ear- 
ly Friday  morning.  St.  John  recalls  the  Ba- 
laam-like prophecy  of  Caiphas.  "  Now  Cai- 
phas was  he  who  had  given  the 
counsel  to  the  Jews,  that  it  was 
expedient  that  one  man  should 
die  for  the  people." 

Anna c>,  as  we  have  seen,  had 
been  deposed  from  office  by  the 
Roman  power,  but  was  con- 
sidered the  true  high-priest  by 
the  Jews.  The  trial  of  Jesus 
before  him  was  therefore  a  pri- 
vate one,  managed  by  the  con- 
spirators to  natter  his  vanity 
and  secure  his  influence  against 
Jesus  for  the  subsequent  trials, 
both  Jewish  and  Roman.  Mean- 
time Caiphas,  who  was  a  crea- 
ture of  Annas,  either  lived  with  him  or  had  been 
brought  to  his  house  for  the  occasion  ;  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Sanhedrin  were  sent  for  and  held  their 
court  in  the  same  place.  This  explanation,  which 
accords  with,  the  probabilities  of  the  case  and  with 
the  brief  Gospel  narrative  as  well,  makes  the  first 
two  trials  take  place  in  different  parts  of  the  same 
building  or  group  of  buildings. 

But  the  Evangelists,    before  describing   the   trials, 


"  Peter  remembered  the  word  that  Jesus 
had  said.'* 


662 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


And  Simon  Peter  followed  Jesus  afar  off, 
and  so  did  another  disciple.  And  that 
disciple  was  known  to  the  high-priest,  and 
went  in  with  Jesus  into  the  court  of  the 
high-priest.  But  Peter  stood  at  the  door 
without.  The  other  disciple,  therefore, 
who  was  known  to  the  high-priest,  went  out 
and  spoke  to  the  portress,  and  brought  in 
Peter.  And  the  maid  that  was  portress 
saith  to  Peter :  Art  not  thou  also  one  of  this 
man's  disciples  ?  He  saith  :  I  am  not. 
Now  the  servants  and  officersstood  at  a  fire 
of  coals,  because  it  was  cold,  and  warmed 
themselves;  and  with  them  was  Peter  also 
standing  and  warming  himself.  And  there 
came  to  him  a  servant-maid  of  the  high- 
priest  ;  and  when  she  had  seen  Peter  warm- 
ing himself,  and  had  earnestly  beheld  him, 
she  said :  Thou  also  wast  with  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  the  Galilean.  But  he  denied 
before  them  all,  saying :  Woman,  I  know 
him  not :  I  neither  know  nor  understand 
what  thou  sayest.  And  he  went  forth  be- 
fore the  court,  and  the  cock  crew. 


tell  us  of  Peter's  calamitous  fall. 
He  denied  his  Master  thrice,  which 
means  on  three  separate  occasions, 
but  including  at  each  denial  several 
repetitions  of  his  cowardly  words, 
given  iii  answer  to  repeated  ques- 
tions. The  first  occasion  was  when 
John,  who  had  some  close  acquain- 
tance or  perhaps  kinship  with  An- 
nas, induced  the  portress  to  let  Peter 
into  the  courtyard  or  enclosure  about 
the  house.  What  a  change  from 
the  boaster  in  the  supper-room,  the 
wielder  of  the  sword  in  the  garden, 
to  the  quaking  coward  in  the  high- 
priest's  courtyard  !  Jesus  knew 
Peter's  weakness,  and  had  warned  him.  He  was 
self-sufficient  and  rash,  would  not  heed  the  warning, 
and  fell  beneath  the  bantering  questions  of  a  maid- 
servant. He  had  been  willing  to  die  with  Jesus, 
and  now  he  creeps  in  among  the  idle  and  gossiping 
servants  and  soldiers  and  makes  himself  one  of  them, 
curious  "  tc  see  the  end"  without  endangering  his 
own  safety — and  when  put  to  the  test  answers  ' '  Wo- 
man, I  know  Him  not." 

The  end  had  indeed  begun.  The  lamb  was  in 
the  wolf's  den.  The  mock  trial,  instigated  by  hatred 
and  carried  on  before  judges  with  murder  in  their 
hearts,  began  with  a  shameless  attempt  to  force  Jesus 
into  incriminating  admissions.  "  The  high-priest  then 
asked  Jesus  of  His  disciples  and  of  His  doctrine." 
Our  Saviour  might  have  pointed  to  Peter  as  a  speci- 
men of  the  stuff  His  followers  were  made  of.  As  to 
His  teaching,  nothing  was  better  known.  "Jesus  an- 
swered him  :  I  have  spoken  openly  to  the  world ;  I 


THE  DENIAL  OF  PETER. 


663 


have  always  taught  in  the  synagogue  and  in  the 
Temple,  whither  all  the  Jews  resort,  and  in  secret  I 
have  spoken  nothing."  We  can  easily  imagine  the 
glance  of  majestic  scorn  with  which  the  Master 
pointedly  said,  searching  His  questioner's  motives : 
4 '  Why  askest  thou  Me  ?  Ask  them  who  have  heard 
what  I  have  spoken  unto  them  ;  behold,  they  know 
what  things  I  have  said." 

Doubtless  the  guilty  judge  quailed  beneath  this 
correction  from  the  prisoner,  bound  and  helpless  be- 
fore him  ;  aiid  seeing  this,  a  cowardly  attendant  came 
to  his  master's  help.  "And  when  [Jesus]  had  said 
these  things,  one  of  the  servants  standing  by,  gave 
Jesus  a  blow,  saying :  Answerest  Thou  the  higb- 
priest  so  ?  Jesus  answered  him :  If  I  have  spoken 
evil,  give  testimony  of  the  evil;  but  if  well,  why 
strikest  thou  Me  ?  And  Annas  sent  Him  bound  to 
Caiphas,  the  high-priest."  Only  a  short  time  beiore 
when  Peter  smote  Malchus  Jesus  resented  the  blow 
inflicted  on  an  enemy  ;  now  when  He  is  Himself 
smitten  he  accepts  the  blow  and  deigns  to  argue 
with  His  assailant. 

This  seems  to  have  ended  Annas's  examination 
of  the  prisoner.  It  was  then  the  turn  of  Caiphas 
and  the  Sanhedrin.  Meantime,  and  while  the 
Saviour  was  being  led  from  one  court-room  into 
another,  poor  Simon  Peter  again  denied  Him. 
"  And  all  the  priests  and  the  scribes  and  the  an- 
cients were  assembled  together.  And  Peter  fol- 
lowed [Jesus]  even  into  the  court  of  the  high-  ;  He  wept  bitterly." 
priest.  And  as  he  went  out  of  the  gate,  another  maid 
saw  him,  and  she  saith  to  the  standers-by  :  This  man 
also  was  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  And  again  he 
denied  with  an  oath,  that :  I  know  not  the  Man. 
And  another  seeing  him,  standing  and  warming  him- 


664  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

self,  said  therefore  to  him  :  Art  not  thou  also  one  of  His 
disciples  ?     He  denied  it,  and  said  :  O  man,  I  am  not." 

Meantime  the  trial  of  Jesus  proceeded.  All  the 
malignity  of  men  and  devils  is  concentrated  in  this 
court,  and  from  it  there  is  distributed  into  the  whole 
Jewish  race  the  venom  of  hatred  against  Christ,  as  the 
blood  of  a  patient  is  poisoned  by  the  gathered  venom 
of  an  ulcer — relentless  hatred,  the  barbarous  cruelty 
of  souls  steeped  in  vice.  Yet  they  are  members  of 
a  divinely  instituted  tribunal,  and  they  are  meant  by 
God  to  be  models  of  righteousness  as  men,  models  of 
justice  as  judges.  They  assume  the  show  of  these 
virtues,  and  add  to  their  ordinary  crimes  the  excep- 
tional one  of  hypocrisy.  They  cover  blasphemy  and 
sacrilege  and  murder  with  the  mantle  of  religious  zeal. 

The  object  of  every  judicial  process  is  to  discover 
the  truth ;  of  this  one  the  purpose  is  to  hide  the  truth 
and  to  put  the  accused  to  death.  No  wonder  that  our 
Saviour  was  almost  entirely  silent  before  such  a  court 
as  this,  simply  saying  that  He  had  spoken  in  public 
and  all  knew  His  doctrine — He  calls  the  whole  nation 
as  His  witness. 

CHAPTER  XUI. 

THE   FIRST  TRIAI,  OP  JESUS  BEFORE   THE   SANHEDRIN. 
—THIRD    DENIAL  OF   PETER. 

Matt.  xxvi.  50-75  /  Mark  xiv.  55-72  ;  Luke  xxii.  59-62  ; 
John  xviii.  26,  27. 

ENEMIES  of  good  men  have  always  sought  to  con- 
demn them  out  of  their  own  mouths,  catching  them  by 
words  uttered  in  unguarded  moments  and  capable  of 
misinterpretation.  Thus  acted  the  Sanhedrin,  now 
assembled  near  the  midnight  hour,  bent  upon  con- 
demning Jesus  of  Nazareth  to  death.  But  they  were 


THE  FIRST  TRIAL  OF  JESUS. 


665 


legalists  of  an  extreme  type  and  would  commit  murder 
under  due  forms  of  law,  that  is,  after  the  show  of  a 
trial  before  a  court.  Their  present  meeting  was  not 
intended  to  be  a  regular  session  of  the  court,  but 
rather  the  conspirators  secretly  rehearsing  their  part 
as  forsworn  judges ;  as  soon  as  the  law  would  allow 
— that  is,  when  morning  came — they  were  going  to 
play  their  part  in  the  open.  But  their  pretence  of 
evidence  and  witnesses  was  utterly  futile,  They  were 
determined  to  put  Jesus  to  death  any  way.  What  a 
dreadful  crime  in  these  judges,  thus  to  conspire  before- 
hand the  death  of  a  prisoner  to  be  tried  by  them- 
selves ! 

The  Sanhedrin  was  a  court  composed  of  members 
of  the  priestly  families  and  of  the 
most  distinguished  doctors  of  the 
Mosaic  law.  Their  power  extended 
over  all  religious  matters  in  the  en- 
tire race  of  Israel,  including  crimi- 
nal and  civil  cases,  as  far  as  the 
limits  of  Judea.  They  were  not, 
indeed,  the  successors  of  the  seven- 
ty elders  who  had  been  organized 
by  Moses  under  divine  mandate 
to  assist  in  governing  the  nation , 
that  council  had  lapsed  ages  before. 
But  they  were  nevertheless  a  regu- 
larly constituted  court  for  the  trial 
of  offences  against  the  religious  and 
civil  code  of  God's  people.  And 
yet,  under  the  influence  of  the  Sad- 
ducean  priests,  men  who  did  not  be- 
lieve in  the  immortality  of  the  hu- 
man soul,  as  well  as  of  that  of  the  fanatical  Pharisees, 
who  perverted  the  law  of  Moses  to  an  abominable  pet* 


Now  the  chief  priests  and  the  whole 
council  sought  false  witness  against  Jesus, 
that  they  might  put  him  to  death ;  and  they 
found  not,  whereas  many  false  witnesses 
had  come  in ;  and  their  evidence  did  not 
agree.  And  last  of  all  there  came  in  two 
false  witnesses,  saying :  We  heard  him 
say  :  I  will  destroy  this  temple,  made  with 
hands,  and  within  three  days  I  will  build 
another  not  made  with  hands.  And  their 
witness  did  not  agree.  And  the  high- 
priest,  rising  up  in  the  midst,  asked  Jesus, 
saying :  Answereth  thou  nothing  to  the 
things  that  are  laid  to  thy  charge  by  these 
men  ?  But  he  held  his  peace,  and  answer- 
ed nothing.  And:  he  high-priest  said  to 
him  :  I  adjure  thee,  by  the  living  God,  that 
thou  tell  us,  if  thou  be  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  the  blessed  God  ?  And  Jesus  said  to 
him  :  I  am.  Thou  hast  said  it.  Neverthe- 
less I  say  to  you,  hereafter  you  shall  see 
the  Son  of  Man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of 
the  power  of  God,  and  coming  in  the 
clouds  of  heaven.  Then  the  high-priest 
rent  his  garments,  saying:  He  hath  blas- 
phemed, what  further  need  have  we  of 
witnesses  ?  Behold  now  you  have  heard 
the  blasphemy,  what  think  you  ?  But  they 
all  answering  said  :  He  is  guilty  of  death. 


666  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

tiness  of  observance,  the  Sanhedrin  revolted  almost 
unanimously  against  the  Messias.  Nicodemus  and 
some  others  among  them  were  faithful ;  but  they  were 
too  few  and  too  timid  to  make  any  resistance,  or 
even  to  appear  at  the  trial. 

The  supremacy  of  Jesus  over  the  Temple  and  the 
law  had  been  asserted  by  Him  publicly  and  repeatedly, 
and  this  was  the  chief  accusation  now  brought  against 
Him.  Yet  their  witnesses,  depraved  men,  could  not 
agree  in  their  testimony,  contradicted  each  other — 
just  how  is  not  told.  But  this  claim  of  Jesus  amount- 
ed to  so  high  an  assertion  of  power  that  to  admit 
it  as  just  was  something  like  adoration  of  Him  as 
Sovereign  Master  of  all  things.  This  was  what  they 
hated.  Christ's  assertion  of  divine  prerogatives  was 
what  enraged  them.  They  hurried  headlong  into 
murder  because  God  had  so  loved  the  world  as  to 
become  Man;  because  God's  only  begotten  Son  had 
taken  our  human  nature,  and  insisted  on  proclaim- 
ing His  divine  attributes.  Therefore,  when  legal 
evidence  failed,  the  infamous  Caiphas  struck  out  a 
short  cut  to  their  end.  He  rose  up  and  adjured 
Jesus  to  own  His  character  as  Messias.  Thus  put 
under  oath,  our  Saviour  did  not  flinch.  He  might 
lawfully  have  evaded  the  test ;  He  was  subject  to 
none  of  their  courts.  But  even  if  He  were,  this  as- 
semblage was  no  court,  for  it  was  neither  held  at 
the  legal  hour,  nor  publicly  called ;  nor  had  it  ob- 
served the  right  form  of  procedure,  which,  in  the  first 
place,  required  the  prisoner's  case  to  be  stated  and 
his  witnesses  summoned  and  heard ;  nor  could  judges 
openly  committed  against  a  prisoner  rightly  sit  at 
his  trial.  All  these  were  fatal  objections  to  the  legal- 
ity of  the  trial  and  of  any  question  asked  upon  it. 
But  when  the  high-priest  asked  *  *  Art  Thou  the  Son 


THIRD  DENIAL  OF  PETER.  667 

of  God?"  Jesus  answered,  "I  am."  I  am  (as  if 
to  say)  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God  ;  I  am  the  be- 
ginning and  the  end ;  before  Abraham  your  father 
was,  I  am.  I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life ;  I 
am  who  am.  This  answer  was  the  full  majesty  of 
Jesus  in  open  proclamation.  Upon  hearing  it  they  all 
condemned  Him,  and  sentenced  Him  to  death. 

They  rent  their  garments  in  token  of  horror  at  His 
blasphemy.  L,ittle  did  they  dream  that  their  perfidy 
rent  the  veil  of  their  Temple  and  extinguished  the 
holy  fire  of  its  sanctuary  in  everlasting  shame. 

About  an  hour  had  passed  away  since  Peter's 
second  denial  of  his  Master.  And  now  his  miserable 
weakness  again  sank  down  under  the  looks  and  jeers 
of  the  crowd  in  the  courtyard.  It  began  with  his 
being  recognized  by  one  of  the  party  who  had  appre- 
hended Jesus.  "And  after  the  space  as  it  were  of 
one  hour,  one  of  the  servants  of  the  high-priest,  a 
kinsman  to  him  whose  ear  Peter  cut  off,  saith  to 
him :  Did  not  I  see  thee  in  the  garden  with  Him  ? 
Again  therefore  Peter  denied."  But  he  denied  in 
vain.  He  was  noticed  and  recognized  by  many  others, 
his  accent  and  dress  told  against  him.  The  excite- 
ment was  growing  high,  for  the  trial  was  nearly  done. 
Peter  in  his  frantic  eagerness  to  escape  cursed  and 
swore  in  denial  of  his  discipleship.  "  And  they  came, 
that  stood  by,  and  said  again  to  Peter  :  Surely  thou  art 
one  of  them,  for  thou  art  also  a  Galilean,  even  thy 
speech  doth  discover  thee.  Then  he  began  to  curse 
and  swear,  saying  :  I  know  not  this  man  of  whom  you 
speak.  And  immediately  the  cock  crew  again." 

The  crowing  of  the  cock  this  second  time,  unheard 
by  him  before,  now  wakes  Peter  as  if  from  a  drunken 
stupor.  The  same  instant,  Jesus,  passing  near,  trans- 
pierces his  heart  with  a  glance  of  loving  reproach. 


668  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

The   moon  sailing  across  the  high  heavens  lights  up 

the  two  pale  faces  whose  looks  are  fastened  on  each 

other,  one  already  swollen  by  the  soldier's  blow,   but 

kindly   even  in   reproof;  the   other  haggard  with   re 

morse  and  shame.     "  And  the  Lord  turning  looked  on 

Peter.     And   Peter   remembered   the   word   that  Jesus 

had  said  unto  him  :  Before  the  cock  crow  twice,  thou 

,'?»     -       shalt   thrice   deny    Me.      And    going   forth, 

il§V    he  wept  bitterly." 

A  true  repentance,  deep,  humble,  sincere; 
a  perfect  restoration  to  the  Saviour's  love. 
We  shall  see  that  after  His  resurrection 
Jesus  said  and  did  various  important  things 
about  Peter,  but  his  sin  He  never  named. 
That  glance  of  reproach  was  penance  enough. 
Peter  had  made  magnificent  promises  in 
the  supper- room,  and  he  had  risked  his  life  in 
the  garden  to  keep  them  .true.  But  to  the 
eternal  discredit  of  self-trust  he  broke  utterly 
down  in  the  courtyard  of  Caiphas's  house, 

TRADITIONAL  SITE  OF  JUDAS'S    and   became  an  ingrate,   a  liar,   and  a  per- 
jurer. 

To  deny  the  Lord  in  His  hour  of  deepest  misery 
and  direst  need  was  the  perfidy  of  Peter :  it  thus 
pleased  divine  Providence  that  the  visible  head  of 
the  Church  of  Christ  should  be  its  leading  penitent. 
An  institution  for  the  saving  of  sinners  is  well  begun 
by  the  conversion  of  Peter. 

Not  even  the  Redeemer's  love  for  Magdalene  or  His 
pardon  of  His  murderers  is  more  suggestive  of  how 
to  treat  penitent  sinners  than  His  absolute  pardon 
of  Peter,  followed  by  His  utter  silence  as  to  his 
offence,  His  holding  him  fast  in  His  primacy,  and 
His  confirming  and  augmenting  his  honors. 


SUICIDE. 


THE  TERRIBLE  NIGHT  OF  HOL  Y  THURSDA  Y.     669 
CHAPTER   XLIII. 

THE   TERRIBLE    NIGHT   OF    HOLY   THURSDAY. 
Matt.  xxvi.  67-68 ;  Mark  xiv.  65  ;  Luke  xxii.  63-65. 

AFTER  the  trials  Jesus  was  mocked  and  spat  upon. 
This  cruel  treatment,  which  took  place  in  some  care- 
fully guarded  room  in  or  near  the 
dwelling  of  Annas,  is  related  in  a 
few  brief  sentences  of  the  Synoptics. 
Doubtless  the  soldiers  had  much  if 
not  most  to  do  with  these  insults, 


things  they  said  against  him. 

but    there    must    have   been   repre- 


And  the  men  that  held  him,  mocked  him 
and  struck  him.  Then  did  they  spit  on  his 
face  and  buffeted  him  And  they  blind- 
folded him,  and  smote  his  face  with  the 
palms  of  their  hands,  saying :  Prophesy 
unto  us,  O  Christ !  Who  is  he  that  struck 
thee  ?  And  blaspheming,  many  other 


sentatives   of   the    Sanhedrin   there   that   they    might 
make  sure  of  keeping  their  victim ;  they  would  enjoy 
this   monstrous  pastime  of  the  soldiers  and  take  part 
in   it.      The   Psalmist  (Ps.    xxi.    7,  8)    saw  it   all   in 
vision:     "But  I    am  a   worm,    and   no   man,    the   re- 
proach of  men,    and  the   outcast  of  the   people.     All 
they  that  saw  Me  have  laughed  Me  to  scorn."     The 
spittle   of   the   Pharisee   defiled  that  patient  face,    for 
only   against   them   and   their   hypocrisy   had   it   ever 
been  hardened.     Their  brutal  fists  beat  Him,  their 
suggestion  it  was  that  tied  His  eyes  and  set  the  sol- 
diers to  their  mocking  of  His  Messiasship.     Isaias 
(liii.)  had  foreshown  the  Saviour  as  an  abject  and 
despised  and  blinded  wretch,  wounded  and  bruised 
by   His  enemies.     The   legionaries   stood  for  the 
common  herd  of   sinners  of    all  time,  debauched 
and   abandoned   ruffians ;    and    the    proud    Scribes 
stood   for   those    lecturers   and    authors,    and   other  "Who  is  he  that  struck 
leaders    of   sinners,    who    provide     men    with    the  thee?" 

blasphemous  lies  needed  to  still  remorse  of  conscience. 
A   sorrowful  night  it  was,    full  of  pain   and  insult 
from  without ;  within,  a  measureless  yearning  for  the 


670 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


end,  for  the  cross.  But  while 
Jesus  suffered  the  insults  of  this 
dreadful  night  He  offered  an  ex- 
ample of  the  most  perfect  pa- 
tience. He  was  absolutely  sub- 
missive, yet  without  cringing.  He 
was,  He  must  have  been,  exceed- 
ingly sensitive  to  these  degrading 
humiliations  and  tortures ;  but 
there  is  no  record  of  any  com- 
plaint. It  is  not  apathy  but  re- 
signation to  the  Father's  will  that 
mutely  accepts  these  indignities,  a  submission  so  lov- 
ing as  to  see  something  love- worthy  even  in  the  ma- 
licious instruments  of  a  beneficent  justice  wreaked 
upon  an  innocent  victim  of  redeeming  love. 


14  Prophesy  unto  us,  O  Christ !  " 


CHAPTER   XUV. 

JESUS   BEFORE   THE   SANHEDRIN. 

Matt,  xxvii.  i,  2 ;  Mark  xv.  i  /  Luke  xxii.  66-71 ; 
John  xviii.  28. 

THE  haste  and  hurry  of  the  procedure  against 
Jesus  is  accounted  for  by  various  causes.  The  con- 
spirators wished  to  be  done  with  Him  before  the  Pass- 
over; they  feared  a  revolt  in  His  favor;  especially 
they  were  on  fire  with  hate.  They  seized  the  earliest 
possible  moment  in  the  morning  to  open  their  cpurt 
and  go  through  the  forms  of  a  trial.  "And  straight- 
way in  the  morning,  as  soon  as  it  was  day,  the  an- 
cients of  the  people  and  the  chief  priests  and  scribes 
and  the  whole  council  came  together  and  held  a  coun- 
cil against  Jesus  to  put  Him  to  death."  It  is  curious 
to  notice  that  these  sticklers  for  legality  waited  till 


JESUS  BEFORE  THE  SANHEDRIN.  671 

daylight  because  it  was  unlawful  to  try  a  culprit  for 
a  capital  crime  at  night — yet  remorselessly  violated  the 
most  sacred  of  all  judicial  rules,  fairness  to  the 
prisoner :  these  judges  who  prejudge  their  prisoner 
are  scrupulous  as  to  the  legal  forms  of  their  pro- 
cedure. 

The  Saviour  is  again  incited  to  be  His  own  in- 
criminating witness,  and  again  willingly  asserts  His 
divinity.  "And  they  brought  Him  into  their  coun- 
cil, saying  :  If  Thou  be  the  Christ  tell  us.  And  He 
saith  to  them :  If  I  shall  tell  you,  you  will  not  be- 
lieve Me,  and  if  I  shall  also  ask  you,  you  will  not 
answer  Me  nor  let  Me  go.  But  hereafter  the  Son  of 
Man  shall  be  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  the  power 
of  God.  Then  said  they  all :  Art  Thou  then  the  Son 
of  God?  And  He  said:  You  say  that  I  am.  And 
they  said :  What  need  we  any  further  testimony  ? 
For  we  ourselves  have  heard  it  from  His  own 
mouth." 

It  was  thus  that  they  condemned  Him  to  death. 
Jesus  proclaimed  His  Messiasship,  and  that  meant 
His  divine  Sonship.  Of  His  own  accord  He  added  a 
citation  of  His  judges  to  His  own  court  at  a  future 
day,  wThen  He  would  arraign  them  before  His  divine 
authority  and  in  the  presence  of  His  Father,  to  be 
judged  in  their  turn  with  just  judgment  and  con- 
demned by  an  irrevocable  sentence.  It  was  a  sad 
spectacle,  that  bruised  and  helpless  Prisoner,  defiled 
with  their  spittle  and  hated  by  them  as  no  man  ever 
was  hated  before  or  since  ;  it  was  a  dreadful  spectacle 
to  see  Him  and  them  laying  up  material  for  a  future 
meeting  and  settlement  between  Jehovah  and  them, 
His  chosen  but  traitorous  representatives.  Yet  there 
was  a  terrible  consistency  in  the  council's  action.  It 
agreed  well  with  their  original  and  persistent  rejec- 


672  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

tion  of  Jesus.  For  if  Jesus  be  not  the  Son  of  God,  it 
must  be  owned  that  He  is  the  worst  blasphemer  who 
ever  lived.  Those  in  our  day  who  would  follow  His 
standard  and  still  deny  His  divinity  are,  if  indeed  less 
guilty  than  the  Jewish  judges,  yet  far  less  consistent. 
For  Jesus  has  taught  nothing  so  clearly  as  that  He 
is  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God,  of  one  nature  with 
the  heavenly  Father. 


CHAPTER   XI/V. 

THE    DKSPAIR    OF  JUDAS   AND    HIS   SUICIDK. 

Matt,  xxvii.  3-10. 

As  the  sacred  narrative  follows  the  Saviour  from 
the  council  room  to  Pilate's  hall,  it  turns  a  side  glance 
upon  Judas  and  tells  of  His  end.  He  may  or  may 
not  have  fancied  that  Jesus  would  deliver  Himself 
from  His  enemies  by  a  miracle ;  his  avarice  may  or 
may  not  have  blinded  him  to  the  atrocity  of  his 
crime  before  its  consummation.  But  it  is  a  delusion 
to  attribute  any  worthy  motives  to  any  part  of  the 
treason  of  this  base  wretch,  of  whom  the  Saviour 
said  he  had  better  never  have  been  born  ;  of  whom  the 

Gospel  says   that  the  evil   one  entered  into  him,  and 
What  is  that  to    of    whom    St>    john    says    that    he    was    a   thief  and    a 

US  ? 

hypocrite ;  of  whom  St.  Peter  says  that  he  had  fallen 
A  by  transgression,  had  been  paid  money  for  his  ini- 
quity, and  had  been  deposed  from  his  apostleship 
"  that  he  might  go  to  his  own  place,"  adding  a  refer- 
ence to  the  loathsome  manner  of  his  death,  that  he 
"being  hanged,  burst  asunder  in  the  midst;  and  all 
his  bowels  gushed  out"  (Acts  i.  16-25). 

Judas  is  the  Great  Traitor,  the  Great  Spy,  the 
Great  Thief  of  all  our  race.  And  finally  he  became 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  JUDAS  AND  HIS  SUICIDE.       673 

the  pattern  of  the  worst  form  of  im- 
penitence, despair.  Prowling  about 
the  precincts  of  the  court  during  the 
trials,  hearing  a  word,  catching  a 
glimpse  of  the  proceedings,  hearing 
the  cry  of  triumphant  rage,  "  He  is 
guilty  of  death !  ' '  and  knowing 
what  this  meant  and  how  he  was 
the  cause  of  it  all,  the  money  of 
the  Traitor  began  to  burn  him. 
When  morning  came  the  sacrifice 
at  the  Temple  was  attended  by  some 
of  the  priests  who  had  been  at  the 
trial,  and  Judas  went  to  them  and 
handed  back  the  fatal  blood-money. 
But  bribe- givers  the  world  over  de- 
spise bribe-takers.  "  What  is  that  to 
sneered  ;  "  Look  thou  to  it." 


Then  Judas,  who  betrayed  him,  seeing 
that  he  was  condemned ;  repenting  him- 
self, brought  back  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver 
to  the  chief  priests  and  ancients,  saying  :  I 
have  sinned,  in  betraying  innocent  blood. 
But  they  said:  What  is  that  to  us?  look 
thou  to  it.  And  casting  down  the  pieces  of 
silver  in  the  temple,  he  departed :  and 
went  and  hanged  himself  with  an  halter. 
But  the  chief  priests  having  taken  the 
pieces  of  silver,  said  :  It  is  not  lawful  to 
put  them  into  the  corbona,  because  it  is  the 
price  of  blood.  And  after  they  had  con- 
sulted together,  they  bought  with  them  the 
potter's  field,  to  be  a  burying-place  for 
strangers.  For  this  cause  that  field  was 
called  haceldama,  that  is,  the  field  of  blood, 
even  to  this  day.  Then  was  fulfilled  that 
which  was  spoken  by  Jeremias  the  pro- 
phet, saying :  And  they  took  the  thirty 
pieces  of  silver,  the  price  of  him  thi.  was 
prized,  whom  they  prized  of  the  children 
of  Israel.  And  they  gave  them  unto  the 
potter  s  field,  as  the  Lord  appointed  to  me. 


us  ?  "  they 
He  dropped  the  pieces 
of  silver  on  the  floor,  went  out  to  a  quiet  spot,  and 
put  himself  to  death.  When  the  bribe-givers  heard 
this  they  took  the  money,  which  must  have  been 
gathered  up  by  the  servants  of  the  Temple,  and,  zeal- 
ous for  the  outward  forms  of  religion,  they  would  not 
use  this  price  of  human  blood  for  the  worship  of  God. 
They  had  recently  been  bargaining  for  a  potter's  field 
as  a  strangers'  cemetery ;  this  money  helped  them 
through  and  they  concluded  the  purchase. 

Thus  ended  the  career  of  one  whose  awful  crime 
of  the  betrayal  of  Jesus  was  painted  a  deeper  dye  by 
the  sin  of  despair,  by  the  hateful  pride  of  ranking 
the  guilt  of  the  betrayer  higher  than  the  mercy  of 
the  betrayed.  The  despair  of  Judas,  giving  up  the 
money  he  had  so  ardently  coveted,  and  avowing  that 
he  had  betrayed  innocent  blood,  is  in  contrast  with 
the  malignant  perseverance  of  the  high-priests,  who 


674  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

would  neither  take  the  money  back  nor  relent  in  their 
purpose.  Their  thirst  for  the  blood  of  Jesus  was  in- 
satiable. 

Judas'  treason  has  given  avarice  a  peculiar  supre- 
macy among  the  vices.  Those  whose  vocation  it  is  to 
fight  vice  know  well  that  love  of  money  is  in  many 
ways  the  most  cruel  of  the  enemies  of  the  human  soul, 
as  it  was  the  incitement  to  the  most  awful  crime 
ever  committed. 


CHAPTER  XI/VI. 

JESUS  BEFORE   PILATE. 

Matt,   xxvii.   2—11;  Mark  xv.    i ;  Luke  xxiii.  j-,  2; 
John  xviii.  28-32. 

THE  next  step  in  the  conspiracy  was  to  engage 
the  help  of  the  Roman  power  in  carrying  out  the 
sentence  of  death.  To  put  a  prisoner  to  death  was 
no  longer  in  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Sanhedrin.  There- 
fore they  hurried  away  in  a  body,  dragging  their 
Victim  with  them,  and  passing  in  the  earliest  light 
of  the  dawn  from  Mount  Sion  to  the  Castle  of  An- 
tonia  at  the  north-westerly  corner  of  Mount  Moriah,  a 
distance  of  three-quarters  of  a  mile.  "And  the  whole 
multitude  of  them  rising  up,  bound  Jesus  and  led 
Him  away,  and  delivered  Him  to  Pontius  Pilate  the 
Governor.  They  led  Jesus  from  Caiphas  to  the  gov- 
ernor's hall ;  and  it  was  morning.  And  they  went 
not  into  the  hall,  that  they  might  not  be  defiled,  but 
that  they  might  eat  the  Pasch."  Their  scruple  did  not 
refer  to  the  eating  of  the  paschal  supper,  for  this 
had  been  done  the  evening  before,  but  rather  to  the 
unleavened  bread  which  was  to  be  eaten  until  the 
festival  days  were  over,  a  privilege  which  supposed 


JESUS  BEFORE  P1LA  TE.  675 

legal  cleanness :  they  feared  defilement  by  entering 
the  hall  of  Pilate  and  coming  into  the  presence  of 
pagan  images.  Rather,  in  truth,  was  their  presence 
a  defilement  to  the  pagan  Pilate.  Kven  a  false  pagan 
is  shamed  by  the  company  of  apostate  priests. 

Pontius  Pilate  is  a  name  written  high  on  the  roll 
of  infamy,  written  in  Jesus'  blood.  His  career  in 
Judea  had  been  miserable  from  the  beginning.  He 
got  his  office  six  years  before  these  awful  days,  and 
by  a  series  of  blunders,  all  combining  cruelty  and 
cowardice,  he  had  earned  the  distrust  of  Rome  as 
well  as  the  hatred  of  the  Jews.  These  now  hoped  to 
have  their  sentence  of  death  against  Jesus  ratified  by 
the  Governor  and  instantly  executed. 

And  what  were  the  Saviour's  thoughts  as  the 
perfidy  of  the  Jews  handed  Him  over  to  the  cruelty 
of  the  pagans  ?  Always  love.  Jesus  was  the  Messias 
of  the  Jews,  and  had  been  condemned  by  His  own 
race  through  hatred  and  envy  ;  and  yet,  though  He 
loved  all  men,  He  loved  the  Jews  the  most  tenderly 
of  all.  He  was  now  flung  into  the  strong  embrace  of 
Rome,  which  was  to  weaken  before  this  turbulent  and 
threatening  conspiracy  and  deliver  Him  to  death ; 
and  although  Jesus  loved  all  the  Gentiles,  He  loved 
the  Romans  best,  as  the  dominant  people  of  the  world, 
the  most  candid  and  manly  and  courageous  people 
ever  known.  His  love  for  both  Jew  and  Roman  never 
faltered. 

Pilate's  instincts  as  a  judicial  officer  dictated  his 
first  question  to  the  chief  priests.  He  "went  out  to 
them  and  said:  What  accusation  bring  you  against 
this  man?"  In  reply  they  have  the  effrontery  to  de- 
mand a  blind  approval  of  their  sentence  against  Jesus  ; 
but  Pilate  retorts  by  bidding  them  assume  the  whole 
responsibility. 


676  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

The  accusers  of  Jesus,  though  judges  themselves, 
are  insulted  because  Pilate  asks  for  evidence  before 
condemning  their  victim.  "If  He  were  not  a  male- 
factor, would  we  have  brought  Him  before  you?  " — 
language  which  throws  light  backward  on  their  own 
judicial  proceedings.  "  They  answered  and  said  to 
him:  If  He  were  not  a  malefactor,  we  would  not 
have  delivered  Him  up  to  thee.  Pilate  said :  Take 
Him  you,  and  judge  Him  according  to  your  law." 
But  this  meant  either  a  hazardous  infliction  of  the 
death  penalty — a  jurisdiction  of  which  their  courts  had 
been  deprived — or  a  punishment  less  than  death. 
' '  The  Jews  therefore  said  to  him  :  It  is  not  lawful  for 
us  to  put  any  man  to  death  ;  that  the  word  of  Jesus 
might  be  fulfilled,  which  He  said,  signifying  what 
death  He  would  die."  Namely,  the  death  of  the 
cross,  a  Roman  form  of  punishment  reserved  for 
slaves,  and  other  criminals  of  low  grade  in  the  social 
order.  Jesus  was  glad  of  this,  for  He  chose  to  die 
the  worst  form  of  death,  the  most  infamous,  instigated 
by  the  most  venomous  hatred,  that  of  the  Jews ;  in- 
vented by  the  most  resistless  despotism  ever  known, 
the  implacable  tyranny  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

Thrust  back  upon  their  proofs,  the  chief  priests 
"began  to  accuse  Him,  saying:  We  have  found  this 
man  perverting  our  nation,  and  forbidding  to  give 
tribute  to  Caesar,  and  saying,  that  He  is  Christ  the 
King."  Neither  of  these  charges  had  any  effect  on 
Pikte.  He  knew  from  the  daily  reports  of  his  sub- 
ordinates that  there  had  been  no  recent  sedition  or 
attempt  at  one ;  the  tribute  to  Caesar,  Pilate's  chief 
official  concern,  had  not  been  meddled  with  ;  nor  had 
any  claimant  to  Jewish  temporal  royalty  arisen.  But 
as  a  demand  for  soldiers  to  quell  some  disturbance 
or  other  had  been  made  tue  previous  evening  ;  and  as 


"ART  THOU  KING  OF  THE  JEWS? 


67? 


this  prisoner  was  at  that  time  arrested,  Pilate  felt  it 
necessary  to  make  at  least  a  personal  examination  of 
the  case.  There  is  no  manner  of  doubt  that  he  was 
averse  to  blood-shedding  at  this  particular  moment, 
and  for  the  obvious  reason  that  the  city  was  over- 
flowing with  the  most  fervent  and  hence  most  excitable 
members  of  the  whole  Jewish  race.  Meantime,  though 
he  had  while  governor  caused  several  bloody  mas- 
sacres, it  was  for  real  or  fancied  reasons  of  state;  there 
is  no  evidence  to  show  that  this  miserable  man  was 
naturally  blood-thirsty,  and  his  dealing  with  the  case 
of  Jesus  shows  that  he  was  by  no  means  devoid  of 
a  sense  of  justice.  The  malignity  of  the  high-priests 
far  outranks  any  cruelty  in  this  unfortunate  Roman's 
disposition  or  conduct.  But  their  desperate  audacity 
in  a  bad  cause  brings  into  vivid  contrast  his  shuffling 
cowardice.  The  violence  of  the  lawless  can  have  no 
better  ally  than  the  timidity  of  the  magistrate. 


CHAPTER   XI/VII. 
"ART  THOU  KING  OF  THE  JEWS?  " 

Matt,  xxvii.   n ;    Mark  xv.  2  ; 
Luke  xxiii.  3  ;  John  xviii.  33-38. 

FACE  to  face  stood  Jesus  and  the 
Roman  Governor.  The  trouble  and 
sadness  in  the  soul  of  the  Redeemer 
cast  a  heavy  gloom  on  His  counte- 
nance, and  His  kindly  but  solemn 
glance  at  Pilate  was  as  the  rays  of 
the  sun  rifting  through  dark  clouds. 
Pilate  met  this  with  wavering.  Al- 
though, out  of  complaisance  to  the 
Jews,  he  might  be  induced  to  find 


Pilate  therefore  went  into  the  hall  again, 
and  called  Jesus,  and  said  to  him  :  Art 
thou  the  king  of  the  Jews  ?  Jesus  answer- 
ed :  Sayest  thou  this  thing  of  thyself,  or 
have  others  told  it  thee  of  me  ?  Pilate 
answered  :  Am  I  a  Jew  ?  Thy  own  nation 
and  the  chief  priests  have  delivered  thee 
up  to  me :  what  hast  thou  done  ?  Jesus 
answered :  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world.  If  my  kingdom  were  of  this  world, 
my  servants  would  certainly  strive  that  I 
should  not  be  delivered  to  the  Jews :  but 
now  my  kingdom  is  not  from  hence. 
Pilate  therefore  said  to  him  :  Art  thou  a 
king  then  ?  Jesus  answered  :  Thou  sayest, 
that  I  am  a  king.  For  this  was  I  born,  and 
for  this  came  I  into  the  world  :  that  I 
should  give  testimony  to  the  truth.  Every 
one  that  is  of  the  truth,  heareth  my  voice. 
Pilate  saith  to  him :  What  is  truth  ?  And 
when  he  said  this  he  went  forth  again  to 
the  Jews,  and  saith  to  them  :  I  find  no 
cause  in  him. 


678 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHAIST. 


kingdom   is  not  of  this 
world." 


Jesus  guilty,  yet  he  must  take  some  sort -of 
evidence  before  doing  so.  It  is  probable 
that  the  chief  priests  had  given  him  the  hint 
to  question  Jesus  about  a  claim. .of  kingship, 
as  they  had  done  concerning,  the  Messias- 
ship.  It  would  save  time,  they  thought ;  it 
would  elicit  the  Saviour's  frank  avowal,  and 
arouse  the  Roman's  jealousy.  Hence  Jesus 
in  His  defence,  gave  question  for  question: 
"Sayest  thou  this  thing  of  thyself?  "  And 
hence  Pilate's  evasion:  "Am  I  a  Jew?" 
How  lofty  the  scorn  in  that  interrogatory ! 
But  Pilate  followed  it  up  with  a  more  prac- 
tical question :  ' '  Thy  own  nation  and  the 
chief  priests  have  delivered  Thee  up  to  me. 
What  hast  Thou  done  ?  ' '  He  thus  dismisses 
the  question  of  kingship,  which  he  perceives 
must  be  a  spiritual  or  rather  a  theological 
one,  and  therefore  a  visionary  matter  to  a 
practical  Roman  mind.  But  Jesus  held  him 
to  it,  and  after  showing  that  His  claim  to 
kingship  had  no  worldly  significance,  He  in- 
sisted upon  His  sovereignty,  His  real  king- 
ship, iover  men's  minds:  "My  kingdom  is 
not  of  this  world."  Pilate's  curiosity  about 
such  things  was  feeble,  but  he  asked,  "Art 
thou  a  king  then  ? ' '  Upon  which  Jesus 
made  His  royal  proclamation :  * '  Thou  say- 
est  that  I  am  a  king.  For  this  was  I  born, 
and  for  this  came  I  into  the  world,  that  I 
should  give  testimony  to  the  truth."  By 
birth  and  lineage  as  the  Incarnate  Word  of  God  and 
the  Light  of  the  World  He  was  the  head  master  of 
God's  School  and  the  intellectual  monarch  of  the  hu- 
man race.  One  piercing  word  He  added:  "Every 


"ART  THOU  KING  OF  THE  JEWS?" 


679 


one  that  is  of  the  truth  heareth  My  voice."  Pilate 
had  possibly  dabbled  a  little  in  philosophy,  but  he  was 
a  pagan,  and  he  answered  as  if  he  were  also  a 
sceptic  :  "  What  is  truth  ?  " 

No  one  was  so  well  fitted  as  Jesus  to  answer  that 
question,    for  He  had   said   before  "  I  am  the 
truth."      But    Pilate    did    not    want    to    talk 
philosophy    (so   he  must   have  considered   it), 
but  only  to  be  rid  of  Jesus  and  the  clamoring 
Jews.     Therefore  he  went  out  to  the  chief 
priests    and    stated    his    acquittal    of    their 
victim;     he    did    it   emphatically    and,    he 
hoped,    finally:     "I    find    no    cause    in 
Him,"     exclaimed     the     Roman     judge. 
How  different  would   his  fate  have   been 
had  he  but  had  the   courage  to 
stand    to    that    righteous     sen- 
tence ! 

When  our  Saviour  said  to 
Pilate,  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of 
this  world,"  the  Roman  could 
hardly  have  understood  Him, 
though  he  felt  vaguely  that  this 

explanation  exempted  Jesus  from  his  jurisdiction,  as 
the  Romans  knew  of  no  other  kingdom  but  an  earthly 
one.  There  are  not  a  few  monarchs  and  other  rulers 
who  agree  with  Pilate,  and  yet  will  not  suffer  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  to  exercise  or  even  to  claim 
spiritual  jurisdiction. 


What  is  truth?'1 


680  LIFE  OF  fj-ESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER   XLVIII. 

PILATE   SENDS  JESUS  TO   HEROD 
Matt,  xxvii.  12—14.;  Mark  xv.  3-5  ;  Luke  xxiii.  4—16. 

THE  chief  priests  were  thunderstruck  by  this  de- 
cision of  the  governor.  Instantly  "  they  accused 
[Jesus]  in  many  things."  The  Saviour  was  then 
ordered  forth  to  confront  His  accusers  ;  but  He  re- 
fused to  defend  Himself  further.  "And  when  He 
was  accused  by  the  chief  priests  and  ancients  He  an- 
swered nothing.  Then  Pilate  saith  to  Him :  Dost 
Thou  not  hear  how  great  testimonies  they  allege 
against  Thee  ?  And  He  answered  him  to  never 
a  word,  so  that  the  governor  wondered  exceedingly." 
He  could  not  understand  why  Jesus,  having  in  him 
a  judge  inclined  to  be  favorable,  yet  made  no  defence, 
no  counter  charges  against  His  enemies.  But,  even 
so,  Pilate  was  loath  to  yield  to  the  conspirators.  He 
said  again  ' '  to  the  chief  priests  and  to  the  multitude  : 
I  find  no  cause  in  this  Man.  But  they  were  the  more 
earnest,  saying :  He  stirreth  up  the  people,  teaching 
throughout  all  Judea,  beginning  from  Galilee  to  this 
place.  But  Pilate  hearing  of  Galilee,  asked  if  the 
Man  were  a  Galilean.  And  when  he  understood  that 
He  was  of  Herod's  jurisdiction,  he  sent  Him  away  to 
Herod,  who  was  also  himself  in  Jerusalem  in  those 
days." 

Instantly  had  Pilate  found  his  opportunity  in  the 
word  Galilee — Herod  must  judge  this  case,  Herod 
the  Tetrarch  of  Galilee.  True,  Pilate  was  aware  that 
his  own  court  had  jurisdiction,  but  so  had  Herod's, 
for  jurisdiction  came  from  the  domicile  of  the  culprit 
as  well  as  from  the  locality  of  the  crime  he  was  accused 
of  committing.  Herod  Antipas,  Tetrarch  of  Galilee, 


PILATE  SENDS  JESUS  TO  HEROD.  68l 

had  a  residence  in  Jerusalem  and  was  now  present  for 
the  Passover,  for  he  pretended  to  believe  in  the 
Hebrew  faith.  Pilate  would  force  him,  the  murderer 
of  the  Baptist,  a  sensualist  and  a  scoffer,  but  yet 
nominally  a  member  of  the  Jewish  religion,  to  make 
the  final  disposition  of  the  Prisoner. 

The  heart  of  Rome  was  wolfish.  The  myth  which 
told  of  its  founders  having  been  suckled  by  a  she 
wolf  was  all  too  truly  indicative  of  the  pitiless  Roman 
spirit ;  and  Pilate  had  often  shown  the  usual  cruelty 
of  his  race.  But  he  was  not  wantonly  cruel,  and  he 
resented  the  attempt  of  the  Jews  to  force  him  to  kill 
Jesus.  As  to  Herod,  whom  our  Saviour  himself  had 
called  "  that  fox,"  he  was  as  cruel  but  more  crafty 
than  the  Roman  wolf. 

By  Herod's  cunning,  hidden  behind  his  buffoonery, 
and  Pilate's  impatience  under  compulsion,  the  fierce 
malignity  of  the  Jews  was  for  the  moment  baffled. 
Meantime  the  Saviour  suffered  many  pangs  of  mental 
anguish  and  bodily  pain  while  dragged  along  the  pub- 
lic streets  between  the  Roman  garrison  and  Herod's 
palace,  a  distance  of  nearly  a  mile.  The  Jewish  con- 
spirators hurried  Him  back  and  forth,  the  hour  being 
now  about  seven  in  the  morning,  devouring  Him  with 
their  hatred  and  hotly  debating  among  themselves 
what  course  to  follow  to  finally  destroy  Him. 

Herod  probably  believed  not  a  word  of  the  charges 
against  Jesus.  At  any  rate  he  re- 
fused to  condemn  Him  to  death. 
But  constraining  himself  to  think 
him  no  more  than  a  skilful  juggler 
under  a  religious  craze,  he  would 
coax  Him  to  give  a  performance. 
Jesus  refused  to  answer  a  single 


ment,  and  sent  him  back  to  Pilate. 

word ;    He   utterly  ignored  Herod. 


And  Herod,  seeing  Jesus,  was  glad,  for 
he  was  desirous  of  a  long  time  to  see  him, 
because  he  had  heard  many  things  of  him, 
and  he  hoped  to  see  some  sign  wrought  by 
him.  And  he  questioned  him  in  many 
words.  But  he  answered  him  nothing. 
And  the  chief  priests  and  the  scribes  stood 
by  earnestly  accusing  him.  And  Herod 
with  his  army  set  him  at  naught,  and 
mocked  him,  putting  on  him  a  white  gar- 


682  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Irritated   at  this,   and   noticing  the   accusation  of  the 
claim   of   kingship,    Herod   bade    his   military    escort 
make    sport    of   Jesus,    and    then    returned    Him    to 
Pilate   clothed   in    mockery    with    a    white    garment, 
which  may  have  been  a  sort  of  toga.     The  two  rulers 
had  recently  been  at  enmity ;  possibly  because  Pilate 
had   slaughtered    a   number   of   Galileans    some   time 
before.     "  And  Herod  and   Pilate  were  made  friends 
together   that   same  day,  for  before  they  were  ene- 
mies one  to  another."     They  now  exchanged  peace- 
ful  messages  and   compliments   by  means  of  their 
prisoner's  escort;    Jesus   was    thus,  a  mediator  of 
peace  even  between  these  two  most  atrocious  sinners. 
Pilate's  sole  purpose   was  to    rid.  himself  of   the 
embarrassment  which  the  chief  priests  had  thrust  on 
him.     All   he  gained  was  peace  with  Herod  :    war 
with  his   own   conscience   and   with    the   Jews  was 
still  raging.     He  placated  a  personal  enemy,  but  he 
paid  dearly  for  it.     Jesus  was  still  to,  be   disposed 
"Herod  mocked  Him!"  of,   the  Jews  were  still  to  be  managed. 

Herod's  conduct  was  characteristic.  As  the  false 
Roman  magistrate  treats  Jesus  with  cowardly  subser- 
vience, and  as  the  murderous  fanatics  treat  Him  with 
cruelty,  so  the  sensualist  prince  treats  Him  with  levity 
and  derision.  Jesus  had  never  sought,  the  courts  of 
princes;  rather  He  had  preached  His  Gospel  to.  the 
poor.  His  sermon  to  Herod  and  His  court  on  this 
the  only  time  He  had  a  royal  audience  was  patient 
silence.  Some  of  the  saintliest  of  His  followers  have 
been  of  kingly  station,  and  have  aided  religion  with 
regal  generosity ;  but  Herod  was  of  the  bad  sort  of 
kings,  and  was,  glad  to  mock  at  religion's  Founder  and 
Author. 

This  Man  of  divine  words,  who  had  been  inces- 
santly teaching  day  and  night,  for  three  years,  is  ah- 


PILOT  SENDS  JESUS  TO  HEROD.  683 

solutely  silent  before  Herod,  a  fact  most  suggestive 
of  his  unworthiness.  If  the  door  is  shut  to  the  light- 
minded  and  foolish  virgins,  the  door  of  instruction  is 
much  rather  shut  to  the  flippant  and  licentious  Herod. 
The  silence  of  God  is  as  terrible  as  His  threatening ; 
even  more  so,  for  all  threatening  is  a  call  to  re- 
pentance. But  the  pain  of  loss  is  the  pain  of  God's 
eternal  silence.  But,  as  we  have  seen,  Herod  treated 
our  Saviour's  silence  as  stupidity,  and  piqued  at  his 
failure  to  extort  either  preaching  or  miracles  from 
Him,  he  ordered  a  fool's  garment  to  be  put  on  Him; 
and  thus  clothed  Jesus  is  led  back  to  Pilate,  with 
Herod's  compliments.* 

The  soul  of  Jesus,  though  oppressed  with  grief, 
was  calm  and  patient  as  He  stood  before  Pilate,  just 
as  the  latter 's  soul  was  in  a  tumult  of  conflicting 
emotions,  honor  being  in  the  death  struggle  with 
cowardice.  Pilate  stiffened  his  courage  for  another 
attempt  at  getting  rid  of  the  case :  he  offered  the 
chief  priests  to  have  the  Prisoner  flogged — disgrace 
enough  and  pain  enough — and  then  to  discharge  Him. 
"And  Pilate,  calling  together  the  chief  priests  and 
the  magistrates  and  the  people,  said  to  them :  You 
have  presented  unto  me  this  Man  as  one  that  per- 
verteth  the  people,  and  behold  I,  having  examined  : 
Him  Lefore  you,  find  no  cause  in  this  Man,  in  those 
things  wherein  you  accuse  Him ;  no,  nor  Herod 
neither;  for  I  sent  you  to  him,  and  behold  nothing 
worthy  of  death  is  done  to  Him.  I  will  chastise 
Him,  therefore,  and  release  Him." 

Up   to   this   Pilate  had   only   temporized.      So    far 

*This  is  not  the  only  time  that  making  a  fool  of  Christ  and  His 
Church  has  been  the  means  of  reconciliation  and  the  basis  of  treaties  be- 
tween princes,  as  witness  the;  robbery  and  mockery  of  the  Holy  See  these 
recent  times,  concocted  and  carried  out,  by  Napoleon  the  Third  and  Victor 

Emmanuel. 


684  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

his  sin  was  that  of  a  grave  enough  offence,  omission ; 
for  he  should  have  instantly  released  Jesus  and  pro- 
tected Him  against  His  enemies.  Now  he  is  guilty 
of  the  positive  injustice  of  offering  to  scourge  an  un- 
convicted  prisoner,  nay,  a  man  whom  he  had  pub- 
licly proclaimed  innocent. 

The  Jews  therefore  saw  that  they  had  gained  a 
point.  To  a  Roman  governor,  hardened  to  blood- 
shed and  thinking  little  of  the  life  of  any  Jew,  inno- 
cent or  guilty,  the  step  from  an  unjust  scourging  to 
an  unjust  crucifixion  must  be  a  short  one.  So  rea- 
soned the  Jewish  conspirators,  and  took  heart.  How- 
ever, they  were  again  hindered  and  delayed  by  an- 
other expedient  of  Pilate. 


CHAPTER  XUX. 

"  BARABBAS   OR  JESUS?  " — PILATE'S  WIFE'S  DREAM. — 

"CRUCIFY  HIM  !  " 

Matt,  xxvii.  15-26  ;  Markxv.  6-15  ;  Lukexxiii.  17-24.; 
John  xmii.  39-4.0;  xix.  i. 

IT  happened  that  there  was   a  prisoner  in  Pilate's 
custody  named  Barabbas.     Besides  being  a  rob- 
ber, he   had    been    leader   of    a  petty  rebellion, 
which   had   also   involved   him   in   the  crime   of 
murder.     Having   been   sentenced    to   death,   his 
friends  had  petitioned  for  his   release,  a  boon  to 
be   granted   in   honor  of   the   Passover.      But 
he   was    to   owe  his   life  to  the    rebellion  of 
the    Jewish    priesthood     against    Jesus,    their 
Messias   and    King.      To    Pilate   the    petition 
for  the  giving  up  of  Barabbas  was  a  coward's 

opportunity,    for,    thought  he,    I  will   offer  to 
SCOURGE  USED  IN  TIME  OF        FF  J ' 

CHRIST.  release  Jesus  as  an  alternative,  and  Jesus  will 


"BARABBAS  OR  JESUSf"  685 

have  friends  enough  to  make  a 
strong  claim  for  Him,  especially 
when  I  give  Him  my  preference. 
But  this  craven  trick  failed,  as  had 
the  previous  one  of  sending  Jesus 
to  Herod.  The  mob  shouted  in 
favor  of  Barabbas.  The  robber  and 
murderer  had  more  friends  and 
truer  ones  at  his  command  than 
had  the  Saviour.  Meantime  the 
chief  priests  were  gathering  the 
multitudes,  adding  thereby  mob- 
power  to  their  other  influences 
over  the  vacillating  Roman  judge. 

The  acclaim  of  the  people  in 
favor  of  Barabbas  and  in  preference 
to  Christ  adds  the  fickleness  of 
the  multitude  to  the  malignity  of 
the  Jewish  rulers  and  the  cowardice 
of  the  Roman  judge  as  a  factor  in  our  Saviour's 
condemnation.  It  added,  also,  a  vast  weight  to  the 
load  already  oppressing  the  Victim's  divine  Heart, 
for  He  had  ever  loved  the  people  by  preference. 
Yet  there  was  one  drop  of  comfort  in  the  sea  of 
misery,  for  if  He  was  grieved  that  the  people  rejected 
Him,  He  was  glad  that  poor  Barabbas  was  thereby 
saved  from  death. 

While  Pilate  was  thus  beset,  a  preternatural  mes- 
sage came  to  him  through  his  wife.  "As  he- was 
sitting  in  the  place  of  judgment,  his  wife  sent  to 
him,  saying :  Have  thou  nothing  to  do  with  that 
just  Man,  for  I  have  suffered  many  things  this  day 
in  a  dream  because  of  Him."  Pilate,  we  may  sur- 
mise, was  no  more  a  believer  in  the  heathen  gods 
than  the  generality  of  his  class ;  but  all  men  believed 


Now  upon  the  solemn  day,  the  governor 
was  accustomed  of  necessity  to  release  to 
the  people  one  prisoner,  whom  they  would. 
And  he  had  then  a  notorious  prisoner 
that  was  called  Barabbas,  who  was  put  in 
prison  with  some  seditious  men,  who  in  the 
sedition  had  committed  murder.  And 
when  the  multitude  had  come  up,  they  be- 
gan to  desire  that  he  would  do  as  he  had 
ever  done  unto  them.  They  therefore  be- 
ing gathered  together,  Pilate  said  :  Whom 
will  you  that  I  release  to  you,  Barabbas,  or 
Jesus,  that  is  called  Christ  ?  For  he  knew 
that  the  chief  priests  had  delivered  him  up 
out  of  envy.  But  the  chief  priests  and  an- 
cients persuaded  the  people,  that  they 
should  ask  Barabbas,  and  make  Jesus 
away.  And  the  governor  answering,  said 
to  them:  Whether  will  you  of  the  two  to 
be  released  unto  you  ?  But  the  whole 
multitude  together  cried  out,  saying : 
Away  with  this  man,  and  release  unto  us 
Barabbas.  And  Barabbas  was  a  robber. 
So  Pilate,  being  willing  to  satisfy  the  peo- 
ple, gave  sentence  that  it  should  be  as  they 
required.  And  he  released  unto  them 
Barabbas,  him  who  for  murder  and  sedi- 
tion had  been  cast  into  prison,  whom  they 
had  desired. 


686 


'Crucify  Him!" 


And  Pilate  again  spoke  to  them,  desir- 
ing to  release  Jesus  :  What  will  you  then 
that  I  do  to  the  King  of  the  Jews -Jesus, 
that  is  called  Christ  ?  But  they  cried  again, 
saying:  Crucify  him,  crucify  him.  And 
Pilate  said  to  them  the  third  time  :  Why, 
what  evil  hath  this  man  done  ?  I  find  no 
cause  of  death  in  him  ;  I  will  chastise  him, 
therefore,  and  let  him  go.  But  they  were 
instant  with  loud  voices,  requiring  that  he 
might  be  crucified,  and. their  voices  pre- 
vailed. And  Pilate,  seeing  that  he  pre- 
vailed nothing,  but  that  rather  a  tumult 
was  made,  taking  water,  washed  his  hands 
before  the  people,  saying  :  I  am  innocent 
of  the  blood  of  this  just  man  ;  look  you  to 
it.  And  the  whole  people  answering  said  : 
His  blood  be  upon  us  and  upon  our  chil- 
dren. So  Pilate,  being  willing  to  satisfy 
the  people,  gave  sentence  that  it  should  be 
as  they  required. 


LIFE  OF':  JESUS  CHRIST. 

in  the  miraculous,  arid  this  protest  from 
the  world,  of  visions  must  have  added  to 
his  uneasiness. 

He  fought  on,  therefore,  with  his 
coward's  fight  for  Jesus.  And  at  this 
point  Pilate*s  guilt  takes  on  a  deeper 
shade,  for  he  appeals  to  his  own  sub- 
jects and  to  the  enemies  of  Jestis  fb'r 
guidance.  It  was  a  contest  between  a 
timid  defender  and  a  raging  foe.  "AtKl 
Pilate  again  spoke  to  them,  desiring  to 
release  Jesus  :  What  will  you  then  that 
I  do  to  the  King  of  the  Jews  —  Jesus, 
that  is  called  Christ?"  He  receives- his 
orders  instantly:  ^Crucify  Him  !  ** "  • 

Pilate's  appeal  was  an  open  bid  for 
the  Saviour's  supporters -to5  speak  otit 
in  His  favor.  It  failed  utterly.  s"  Bttt 
they  cried  again,  saying :  Crucify  Him, 
crucify  Him.  And  Pilate  said  to  them 
the  third  time:1  Why,  what- --evil 

-,    this  Man  done?     I  find  no"  cai 

death  in  Him  p  I  will  chastise'  ?Himy 
therefore,  arid  -tefc  Him  go.  But 
they  were  instant  WftH  loWd  voices, 
requiring  that  IM^mfght  be  cruci- 
fied, and  their  voices"  prevailed.'" 

Pilate  then  surrendered.  'But  yet 
he  wished  to1  soothe  his  remorse, 
and  therefore  h£  g%ve  :to  the  world 
the  pitiful!  spectatele^  of  washing  his 
hands  of  blame  for1  Jesus'  death. 
"And  Pilate,  seeing  that  he  pre- 
vailed nothing,  washed  hi£  hands 
before  the  people,  saymg  :  I  am  in- 


"CRVC1FY  HIM!" 


687 


nocent  of  the  blood  of  this  just  Man  ;  look  you  to  it." 
When  Pilate  washed  his  hands  of  the  blood  of  Jesus 
he  consecrated  his  self-deception  by  an  act  of  cere- 
monious mummery. 

This   drew  forth    the   most   awful    self- imprecation 
recorded  in  history  :   ' '  And  the  whole  people  answer- 
ing said  :  His  blood  be  upon   us   and  upon  our  chil- 
dren."    Pilate  had  trembled  at  the  thought 
of 'Jesus'    blood   being   spattered    upon   his 
hands,    but  the  Jews  only  gloated  over  the 
thought  of    its   being  upon  their  souls   and 
upon  their  race  for  ever.     The  anathema  of 
their  self-cursing    is   yet   upon  this   hapless 
and  blinded  people.     But  who  can  describe 
the  feelings  of  Jesus  as  He  heard  those  aw- 
ful words  :   ' '  His  blood  be  upon  us.     Crucify 
Him  !     Crucify  Him  ! ." 

Thus  it  was  that  ,the  chief  priests  won 
their  case  before  Rome's  cowardly  judge. 
Their  persistence  was  stronger  than  his 
sense  of  justice,  their  hate  conquered  his  re- 
luctance to  Shed  innocent  blood.  "'Barabbas  or  Jesus?" 

Pilate  is  an  example  of  a  safe,   a  statesmanlike,  a    , 
moderate   character,    managing   a    difficult   case    and 
tiding  over  an  awkward  predicament. 


688 


'LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER    I,. 

JESUS     IS    SCOURGED    AND     CROWNED     WITH     THORNS. 
—  "  BEHOLD   THE   MAN  !  " 

Matt,  xxvii.  26-30  ;  Mark  xv.  15-19  ;  Luke  xxiii.  23  ; 
John  xix.  1—5. 

"BuT  Jesus,  when  he  had  scourged  Him,  he 
delivered  up  to  their  will  to  be  crucified."  The 
tongues  of  the  Jews  crying  4<  Crucify 
Him!  "  had  pierced  the  soul  of  Jesus 
with  a  poisoned  arrow.  It  was  now 
Rome's  turn;  Pilate  ordered  Him  to  be 
flogged.  The  Roman  whips  tore  His 
flesh  from  His  bones,  as  the  Jewish 
tongues  had  torn  the  tenderest  emo- 
tions of  His  soul. 

The  sacred  narrative  gives  no  de- 
tails of  this  scourging,  which  was  an 
ordinary  preliminary  to  crucifixion. 
That  form  of  execution,  like  many 
others  of  ancient  times,  was  really 
gradual  torturing  of  the  prisoner  to 
death  ;  first  flogging,  then  nailing  to 
a  cross  in  a  public  place,  finally  the 
breaking  of  the  bones  and  the  piercing 
of  the  heart,  all  being  the  punishment 
of  low-caste  criminals.  Jesus,  born  in 
a  stable,  reared  in  a  rustic  cottage,  edu- 
cated in  a  country  carpenter's  work- 
shop —  Jesus,  whose  church  was  built 
upon  peasants  and  fishermen,  could  accept  and  gladly 
did  accept  the  form  of  death  allotted  to  rebellious 
slaves  and  to  murderous  footpads. 

This  Roman  flogging  usually  meant  almost  flaying 


SCOURGED  AND  CROWNED  WITH  THORNS.         689 

alive.  The  prisoner  was  stripped  naked  and  bound 
in  a  stooping  position  so  that  his  skin  might  be 
stretched  tight  to  receive  the  strokes  ;  these  were  given 
with  thin  rods  or  leather  thongs  armed  with  leaden 
balls.  We  may  easily  conjecture  the  cruelty  of  the 
imperial  soldiers  in  scourging  Jesus,  urged  on  by  the 
ravening  fury  of.  the  chief  priests.  No  voice  of  pity 
is  heard,  no  plea  for  mercy,  as  the  strokes  fall  upon 
our  Saviour's  shrinking  form. 

The  scourging  over,  there  followed  an  interval  of 
quiet.     Pilate,  perhaps,  was  beating 


Then  the  soldiers  of  the  governor,  taking 
Jesus  into  the  hall,  gathered  together  unto 
them  the  whole  band,  and  stripping  him, 
they  clothe  him  with  purple.  And  platting 
a  crown  of  thorns,  they  put  it  upon  his 
head,  and  a  reed  in  his  right  hand.  And 
bowing  the  knee  before  him,  they  began  to 
salute  him.  They  worshipped  him  and 
mocked  him,  saying  :  Hail,  King  of  the 
Jews.  And  spitting  upon  him,  they  took 
the  reed  and  struck  his  head  and  they  ga,ve 
him  blows. 


about  for  other  ;  means  of  saving 
Jesus.  But  the  ^soldiers,  amused 
with  the  thought  of  some  sort  of 
a  Jewish  king  being  at  their  mercy, 
employed  the  time  in  making  a  play 
of  Him  and  of  His  royalty,  the 
chief  priests  standing  by  and  enjoy- 
ing the  scene.  Jesus'  garments  had 
been  replaced  on  His  bleeding  body  after  the  scourging*. 
But  in  an  instant  He  is  stripped  again,  and  a  soldier's 
cast-off  cloak  is  tied  about  Him.  But  they  must  have 
a  crown  for  Him ;  and  as  a  chaplet  of  green  leaves, 
laurel,  ivy  or  oak,  was  a  common  adornment  of  Roman 
heroes,  hence  a  suggestion  in  the  minds  of  His  tor- 
mentors for  this  king's  crown  of  derision.  A  neigh- 
boring hedge  furnishes  a  thorn  branch,  and  this  is 
twisted  into  a  chaplet  and  forced  down  upon  His 
temples,  and  for  a  sceptre  a  reed  thrust  into  His 
manacled  right  hand.  It  was  the  terrible  torment  of 
the  night  before  repeated  upon  a  far  weaker  victim. 
Pilate  would  have  hindered  this  indignity  had 
Jesus  appealed  to  him.  But  He  made  no  appeal.  He 
was  mindful  of  His  prophet's  words  foretelling  His 
future  vindication  and  His  everlasting  sovereignty: 


690 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


"They  mocked  Him," 


"  I  looked,  therefore,  in  the  vision 
of  the  night,  and  behold,  one  like 
the-  Son  of  Man  came  with  the 
clouds  of  heaven ;  and  He  came 
even  to  the  Ancient  of  days ;  and 
they  presented  Him  before  Him. 
And  .He  gave  Him  .power  and 
glory  and  a  kingdom ;  and  all 
peoples,  tribes,  and  tongues  shall 
serve  Him.  His  power  is  an  ever- 
lasting power  that  shall  not  be 
taken  away  ;  and  His  Kingdom 
one  that  shall  not  be  destroyed--'? 
(Daniel  vii.  13,  14). 

But  as  yet  Jesus  is  only  a  king 
in  caricature.  They  now  bend 
their  -knees  in  :mockery  before 
Him.  .But  in  course  of  time,  and 

by  reason  exactly  of  this  awful  humiliation,  to  Jesus 
every  knee  shall  bend  in  absolute  submission,  whether 
in  earth,  in  heaven,  or  in  hell. 

But  if  this  base  and  cruel  treatment  of  Jesus  amused 
the   soldiers  and  added  to  the   frenzied   triumph 
of  the  Jewish  conspirators,  it  was  otherwise  "with 
Pilate.     When  he  again  saw  the  poor  Victim  fee- 
was  shocked.     He  ordered  Him  brought  forth^ 
tradition    says  upon   a    balcony   overlooking   the 
outer    court,  which  was    now   filled  with   the 
multitude;    and  he  made  another  effort  to  re- 
lease    Him.      ''Pilate    therefore    went     forth 
again,  and   saith    to   them :    Behold   I 
bring   Him   forth   unto  you,   that  you 
may    know    that   I   find    no  'cause    in 
Him.      (Jesus    therefore    came    forth 
bearing  the  crown  of  thorns  and  the 


THE  FIFTH  STATION  OF  THE  VIA  DOLOROSA. 


PILA  TES  FINAL  STRUGGL E.  69! 

purple    garment.)     And    he   saith    to   them:    Behold 
the  Man!  " 

Behold  the  Man,  ye  Jews !  your  Man  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world.  Behold  the  Man,  who  with 
the  suffering  of  a  mortal  Man  is  entirely  given  up 
to  loving  sacrifice  for  you,  and  with  the  love  of  an 
immortal  Man  is  eternally  devoted  to  you,  and  basely 
rejected  by  you. 


CHAPTER   1,1. 

PIRATE'S  FINAI,  STRUGGLE. — THE  DEATH-SENTENCE. 
Luke  xxiii.  24.  ;  John  xix.  7—16. 

PIRATE'S  compassion  was  doubtless  sincere,  even 
though  it  could  not  overcome  his  baser  motives,  and 
there  is  evidence  that  many  in  the  crowd  were  shocked 
at  the  appearance  of  Jesus,  wrapped  in  a  torn  and 
faded  cloak,  His  hands  bound,  His  head  crowned  with 
thorns,  His  face  streaked  with  blood.  Only  the  chief 
priests  and  their  attendants  are  said  in  the  gospel 
narrative  to  have  kept  on  shouting  for  His  death. 
"  When  the  chief  priests,  therefore,  and  the  servants 
had  seen  Him,  they  cried  out,  saying  :  Crucify  Him  ! 
Crucify  Him  !  ' '  Pilate  hoped  to  win  upon  the  crowd 
still  further  by  throwing  the  responsibility  of  the  im- 
pending murder  upon  them  and  their  leaders:  "Pilate 
saith  to  them  :  Take  Him  you  and  crucify  Him,  for  I 
find  no  cause  in  Him.  The  Jews  answered  him  :  We 
have  a  law,  and  according  to  the  law  He  ought  to 
die  because  He  made  Himself  the  Son  of  God." 

This  was  a  new  charge ;  the  others,  namely,  re- 
fusing to  pay  tribute,  inciting  rebellion,  and  setting 
Himself  up  to  be  king,  Pilate  had  already  dismissed. 
But  here  is  a  strictly  religious  case.  Rome  assumed 


692  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

to  protect  the  Jewish  people  in  their  religious  rights, 
and  here  come  their  chief  priests  and  accuse  this 
strange  being  of  actually  claiming  to  be  their  God :  a 
serious  matter  and  a  new  difficulty.  "  When  Pilate 
therefore  had  heard  this  saying  he  feared  the  more." 
What  did  he  fear?  To  deliver  Jesus  up  to  execution, 
or  to  insist  further  on  His  innocence  ?  Probably  the 
former.  He  made  another  private  examination  of  his 
prisoner.  "And  he  entered  into  the  hall  again,  and 
he  said  to  Jesus  :  Whence  art  Thou  ?  But  Jesus  gave 
him  no  answer.  Pilate  therefore  saith  to  Him  :  Speak- 
est  Thou  not  to  me  ?  Knowest  Thou  not  that  I  have 
power  to  crucify  Thee,  and  I  have  power  to  release 
Thee  ?  Jesus  answered  :  Thou  shouldst  not  have  any 
power  against  Me,  unless  it  were  given  thee  from 
above.  Therefore,  he  that  hath  delivered  Me  to 
thee  hath  the  greater  sin.  And  from  henceforth  Pilate 
sought  to  release  Him." 

Nothing  can  be  more  unsatisfactory  than  the  at- 
tempt to  trace  the  motives  of  Pilate  through  all  these 
proceedings — fear  and  obstinacy,  superstition  and  pro- 
crastination. But  the  strong  words  of  Jesus  had  some 
kind  of  effect  on  him.  Our  L,ord  would  not  waste 
words  on  the  question  of  His  divinity  before  this  ob- 
durate pagan,  but  He  calmly  points  out  Pilate's  re- 
sponsibility to  the  sovereign  majesty  of  God  for  the 
exercise  of  his  power  over  his  prisoner's  life. 

But  the  Jews  knew  their  man  ;  they  knew  Pilate 
better  than  he  knew  himself.  Caesar  was  the  spell 
to  lay  on  him,  the  gloomy  Tiberius,  the  ruthless  and 
irresponsible  monarch  of  the  world.  "But  the  Jews 
cried  out,  saying  :  If  thou  release  this  man  thou  art 
not  Caesar's  friend ;  for  whosoever  maketh  himself 
a  king,  speaketh  against  Caesar."  The  thought  of 
the  despot's  ire  covered  the  conscience  of  the  Roman 


THE  DEA  TH-SENTENCE.  693 

as  with  a  pall.  "Now  when  Pilate  had  heard  these 
words,  he  brought  Jesus  forth  and  sat  down  in  the 
judgment  seat,  in  the  place  that  is  called  Lithostrotas, 
and  in  Hebrew  Gabbatha.  And  it  was  the  parasceve 
of  the  Pasch,  about  the*  sixth  hour."  One  word  more 
he  then  said,  a  last  appeal  he  made  as  if  in  despair, 
to  Jesus'  friends  to  speak  out  for  him.  It  failed.  It 
but  reopened  the  throats  of  His  bloodthirsty  enemies  : 
"  And  he  saith  to  the  Jews  :  Behold  your  king  !  But 
they  cried  out :  Away  with  Him  !  Away  with  Him ! 
Crucify  Him  !  Pilate  saith  to  them :  Shall  I  crucify 
your  king  ?  The  chief  priests  answered :  We  have 
no  king  but  Caesar.  And  Pilate  gave  sentence  that 
their  petition  should  be  granted.  Then,  therefore, 
he  delivered  Him  to  them  to  be  crucified." 

The  place  at  which  the  awful  sentence  was  at  last 
wrung  from  Pilate  was  about  three  hundred  feet  east- 
ward from  the  Ecce-Homo  balcony.  It  was  in  the 
regular  court  room,  and  Pilate  sat  down  in  the  Roman 
curule  chair  and  delivered  his  judgment  upon  Jesus. 
The  time  was  now  near  mid-day. 

The  perfection  of  all  perfidy  is  in  this  assemblage 
of  hate  and  cowardice,  contrasted  with  our  Saviour's 
patience  and  love.  But  what  a  dreadful  deed  was 
that  of  the  Jews  in  exclaiming:  "We  have  no  king 
but  Caesar?  "  a  solemn  and  irrevocable  abdication  of 
their  divinely  given  princedom  over  the  nations. 

Thus  it  was  that  death  came  to  Jesus  and  was 
by  Him  silently  and  freely  accepted.  Since  we  know 
that  one  lightest  pang  of  suffering  would  suffice  for 
our  redemption,  then  we  may  inquire  why  it  is  that 
Jesus  suffered  death,  and  a  death  of  such  multiplied 
agony?  "Because,"  as  St.  Peter  tells  us,  "Christ 
also  suffered  for  us,  leaving  you  an  example  that 
you  should  follow  His  steps"  (I.  Peter  ii.  21). 


694  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

For  an  example  of  the  overflowing  measure  of  love, 
so  that  His  daily  precepts  of  the  hatefulness  of  sin 
and  the  loveworthiness  of  immortal  souls  might  be 
sealed  with  His  blood.  The  crucifixion  is  the  rigor 
of  the  divine  justice  upon  sin,  *and  the  fulness  of  the 
divine  love  for  sinners.  The  cross  alone  gives  us  a 
right  knowledge  of  God  and  sin,  of  hell  and  the 
worth  of  the  soul. 


CHAPTER 

THE   WAY  OF  THE   CROSS. 

Matt,  xxvii.  31—32  ;  Mark  xv.  20 ,  21 ;  Luke  xxiii.  26—32  ; 
John  xix.  16,  17. 

"AND   the  soldiers  took  Jesus,  and  they  took  off 
the  purple  cloak   from   Him,  and  put   His   own   gar- 
ments  on   Him,    and  they   led   Him   away  to  crucify 
Him."     And  thus  Jesus   began  His  journey  to   Cal- 
vary, His  body  dreadfully  bruised  and  dripping  blood, 
His  eyes  full  of  tears,  His   heart  more    heavily 
laden  with    grief   than    His    shoulders  with    the 
Cross.     "And  bearing  His  own  Cross  He  went 
forth."  They  had  given  Him  back  His 
clothes,    and    now  they  completed   His 
equipment  for  His  last  battle — He  was 
armed  with  the  Cross  He  had  so  great- 
ly feared  and  so  ardently  loved.     It   had  shadowed 
His  cradle,  it  had  darkened  every  hour  of  His  ex- 
istence.    We    may    fancy    how   He    reverenced    it 
and    kissed  it  and  embraced  it ;    hard  as  its  edges 
sank  into  His  back,  heavily  as  its  weight  crushed 
Him  down,  He  loved  it  and  bore  it  gladly.     Leader 
"  Women  who  be-      °*    sinners  up  the  mountain   of  God,    He  was  fitly 
wailed  and  lamented."  followed    by  the    two.   thieves.     "And   there   were 


THE  WA  Y  OF  THE  CROSS. 


695 


also  two  other  malefactors  led  with  Him  to  be  put 
to  death."  So  began  our  Redeemer's  Way  of  the 
Cross. 

The  love  of  Jesus  for  sinners  confounds  human 
reason.  For  consider  the  effect  of  His  now  accept- 
ing His  death- sentence,  and  taking  up  the  instrument 
of  it  and  carrying  it  to  the  place  of  execution.  As 
Jesus  took  His  cross,  He  willingly  became  to  the 
multitude,  to  that  congress  of  the  nations  repre- 
sented by  the  Jews  of  the  Dispersion  now  assembled 
for  the  Passover,  the  greatest  criminal  in  the  whole 
world.  He  was  condemned  by  His  own  race  and  re- 
ligion, given  up  to  justice  by  His  own  chosen  friend 
and  apostle,  denied  even  as  an  acquaintance  by  the 
primate  of  His  brotherhood,  and  forthwith  to  be  exe- 
cuted by  the  Roman  governor.  The  very  Ruler  of 
the  universe  disowns  Him,  and  curses  Him,  as  it 
would  seem,  and  will  hide  the  face  of  the  sun  from 
His  dying  eyes,  and  the  senseless  earth  will  shudder 
with  horror  at  His  guilt.  Here  must  be  the  uni- 
versal sinner,  men  might  say  ;  the  quintessence  of 
human  guilt  is  in  this  man.  And  it  is  true,  but  not 
by  personal  guilt,  only  by  the  imputation  of  others' 
guilt  accepted  for  love's  sake  ;  only  by  the  atonement 
of  an  unspeakably  tender  sympathy.  Jesus  under 
the  cross  has  taken  the  place  of  all  sinners  under  the 
divine  malediction.  Thus  it  is  that  our  sins  were  the 
cause  of  His  death.  "He  was  wounded  for  our  ini- 
quities, He  was  bruised  for  our  sins"  (Isaias  liii.  5). 

It  was  soon  evident  that  Jesus  was  too  weak  to 
carry  His  Cross  alone;  this  was  shown,  doubtless, 
by  His  falling  under  it.  '"  And  as  they  led  Him  away, 
they  laid  hold  on  one  Simon  of  Cyrene  coming  from 
the  country,  the  father  of  Alexander  and  of  Rufus. 
Him  they  forced  to  take  up  His  cross.  And  they 


ON  TO  CALVARY. 


"  Weep  not  for  Me." 


696  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

laid  the  cross  on  him  to  carry  after  Jesus." 
The  chief  priests  may  have  directed  the 
Roman  officer  in  command  of  the  detach- 
ment of  soldiers  to  seize  Simon,  a  simple 
countryman  viewing  from  the  wayside  the 
poor  Victim's  misery,  and  doubtless  pity- 
ing Him.  It  is  probable  that  Simon  did 
not  take  the  entire  burden,  but  eased  and 
assisted  the  Lord  after  He  had  recovered 
from  His  first  fall.  Among  alt  the  dif- 
ferent associates  of  our  Saviour  this  aw- 
ful day,  there  is  none  whom  Christians 
would  rather  envy  than  Simon  of  Cyrene  ; 
what  a  privilege  he  enjoyed !  How  little 
compulsion  he  would  have  needed  had 
he  only  known  all  that  we  know,  all  that 
he  afterwards  knew  himself! 

Thus  assisted  the  Saviour  started  on  again.  Though 
the  exact  line  of  this  sad  procession  can  hardly  be 
traced  in  our  day,  yet  it  is  well  enough  agreed  that 
it  probably  moved  from  a  point  several  hundred  feet 
east  of  the  Ecce-Homo  archway  and  balcony,  the  sol- 
diers leading  and  surrounding  the  three  prisoners. 
Each  one  bore  his  cross,  and  also  a  placard  hanging 
about  his  neck,  which  told  in  black  letters  the  crime 
for  which  he  was  to  be  crucified.  Their  weary  way 
is  first  westward,  along  a  street  now  called  Sitti 
Mariam.  As  they  turned  southward,  at  the  corner  of 
a  street  now  called  El- Wad,  there  was  a  halt,  for 
Jesus,  although  helped  by  Simon,  had  again  fallen 
under  His  cross.  They  raised  Him  up  and  He  moved 
onward,  the  compact  ranks  of  the  soldiers  forcing  a 
way  through  the  dense  crowd  that  rolled  in  upon 
them  from  every  side.  A  venerable  and  most  credible 
tradition  tells  us  that  while  passing  southward  in  the 


THE  WA  Y  OF  THE  CROSS.  697 

street  El- Wad  Jesus  met  and  exchanged  greetings 
with  His  sorrowing  Mother.  It  is  also  universally 
believed  that  somewhere  on  this  journey  a  loving  ser- 
vice was  done  Jesus  by  a  devout  woman,  named  Veron- 
ica or  Berenice,  who  pushed  her  way  in  to  Him  and 
wiped  the  sweat  and  blood  from  His  haggard  face, 
which  was  miraculously  pictured  upon  her  towel. 

Neither  of  these  two  meetings  is  recorded  in  the 
Gospels,  only  the  impressment  of  Simon,*  and  the 
meeting  with  a  band  of  Jewish  wo- 
men, among  whom  we  may  be  sure 
His  mother  was  present.  These 
Jesus  spoke  to,  probably  after  again 
turning  westward  and  passing  be- 
yond the  city  wall.  Their  Oriental 
wail  of  sorrow  and  of  sympathy  ar- 
rested progress  and  gave  Jesus  a 
moment's  rest.  He  used  it  to  divert 
their  attention  from  His  own  suffer- 
ings and  to  direct  their  tearful  souls  to  praying  for 
the  doomed  city  and  its  inhabitants.  Doubtless  His 
looks  thanked  them  for  their  affectionate  sympathy  and 
their  tears.  But  He  is  a  teacher  to  t,he  last ;  and  for- 
getting Himself  He  helps  them  in  their  awful  duty  of 
intercession  for  their  race-kindred  by  a  brief  and  sin- 
gularly powerful  admonition.  Tradition  tells  of  an- 
other fall  of  Jesus  soon  after  meeting  and  addressing 
the  women,  but  the  actual  route  followed  immediately 
beyond  the  old  city  wall  is  now  occupied  by  dwelling 
houses. 

Thus  Jesus   passes   out  of   the   gate   of  Jerusalem, 

*  Simon  was  a  Jew  of  the  Dispersion,  come  to  Jerusalem  for  the  Pass- 
over solemnities.  He  was  doubtless  terribly  shocked  and  scared  by  being 
forced  to  help  carry  the  Cross.  As  a  reward  he  and  his  sons  became  con- 
verts and,  it  is  believed,  afterwards  preached  Christ  crucified  in  Spain. 


And  there  followed  him  a  great  multi- 
tude of  people,  and  of  women  who  bewail- 
ed and  lamented  him.  But  Jesus  turning 
to  them,  said :  Daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
weep  not  over  me,  but  weep  for  yourselves, 
and  for  your  children.  For  behold  the  days 
shall  come,  wherein  they  will  say  :  Blessed 
are  the  barren,  and  the  wombs  that  have 
not  borne,  and  the  paps  that  have  not  given 
suck.  Then  shall  they  begin  to  say  to  the 
mountains  :  Fall  upon  us  ;  and  to  the  hills: 
Cover  us.  For  if  in  the  green  wood  they 
do  these  things,  what  shall  be  done  in  the 
dry  ? 


698 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


bearing  away  from  the  Holy  City  its  holiness  for  ever. 
He  will  bestow  holiness  among  the  nations  from  out- 
side the  city  and  enthroned  on  His  mount  of  painful 
merit.  The  prophet  had  invited  the  nations  to  as- 
semble there :  * '  Come  to  the  mountain  of  the  Lord  !  " 
(Isaias  ii.  3).  Henceforward  it  is  not  Mount  Sion 
but  Mount  Calvary  that  is  the  mountain  of  the  Lord. 


CHAPTER   LIU. 

THE      CRUCIFIXION. — THE      INSCRIPTION. — "FATHER, 
FORGIVE   THEM  !  ' ' 

Matt,  xxvii.  33-38  ;  Mark  xv.  22-28 ;  Luke  xxiii. 33-38; 
John  xix.  ij-22. 

THE  carrying  of  the  cross,   coming  as  it  did  after 
so  very  many  deadly  pains,  was  one  of  our  Saviour's 
hardest   sufferings ;    after  the  agony  and 
bloody  sweat  in  the  garden,  the  betrayal, 
the  double  trial   before  the   high-priests, 
the  sorrowful  night  among  the  Jews  and 
the   soldiers,  the  sad  dawn  of  day  before 
Pilate,  packed  off   to  Herod  and  hurried 
back   again    to    Pilate,    cruelly    flogged, 
cruelly   crowned,   brutally    buffeted,    and 
finally   condemned — no   wonder    that   He 
fell  three   times  on  the  way   to  Calvary, 
and  that  it  may  have  seemed  to  Him  like 
going  to  rest  to  be  stripped  and  laid  upon  the  Cross. 
But  what  a  couch  of  rest  was  this !    And  how  cruel 
a  stripping  !  since  His  clothes  must  have  adhered  to 
His  torn  flesh.     If  Jesus  "began  to  be    heavy" — 
that  is,   weary — even  in  the  garden,  how  worn  out 
must  He  not  have  been  now ! 

He  had  finally  been  brought  to  the  place  of  exe- 


And  they  bring  him  into  the  place  called 
Golgotha,  which  being  interpreted,  is  the 
place  of  Calvary.  And  they  gave  him  to 
drink  wine,  mingled  with  myrrh.  And 
when  he  had  tasted  he  would  not  drink. 
And  it  was  the  third  hour.  And  they  cruci- 
fied him,  and  with  him  they  crucified  the 
robbers,  one  on  the  right  hand,  and  the 
other  on  the  left,  and  Jesus  in  the  midst. 
And  the  Scripture  was  fulfilled  which 
saith  :  And  with  the  wicked  he  was  reputed. 
And  Jesus  said  :  Father,  forgive  them,  for 
they  know  not  what  they  do.  And  Pilate 
wrote  a  title  also— the  inscription  of  his 
cause  — and  he  put  it  upon  the  Cross,  over 
his  head.  And  the  writing  was  :  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  King  of  the  Jews.  This  title, 
therefore,  many  of  the  Jews  did  read,  be- 
cause the  place  where  Jesus  was  crucified 
was  nigh  to  the  city,  and  it  was  written  in 
Hebrew,  in  Greek,  and  in  Latin.  Then 
the  chief  priests  of  the  Jews  said  to  Pilate  : 
Write  not,  The  King  of  the  Jews,  but 
that :  He  said,  I  am  the  King  of  the  Jews. 
Pilate  answered :  What  I  have  written, 
I  have  written. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION.  699 

cution.  This  was  a  stony  hill, 
named  from  its  shape  Golgotha  or 
Calvary,  "the  place  of  the  skull." 

What  first  happened  was  that 
they  ' '  gave  Him  to  drink  wine, 
mingled  with  myrrh."  The  expla- 
nation of  this  ,is  that  it  was  the 
custom  of  charitable  women  of  the 
city  to  provide  a  drug  mingled  with 
wine  for  men  about  to  be  executed, 
in  order  to  dull  the  frightful  agony 
of  their  death.  "And  when  He  had 
tasted  He  would  not  drink."  The 
only  opiate  of  Jesus  was  love  for 
sinners  mingled  with  submission  to 
His  Father's  will. 

It  is  now  * '  the  third  hour, ' '  or 
about  noon-day.  Jesus  is  stripped  of  His  garments, 
and  the  brutal  soldiers  cast  Him  down  upon  His  Cross. 
They  stretch  out  His  arms  and  nail  Him  fast  to  the 
wood,  the  nails  crushing  through  His  gentle  hands, 
and  His  zealous,  loving  feet. 

'  *  And  they  crucified  Him.  And  with  Him  they 
crucified  the  robbers,  one  on  the  right  hand  and  the 
other  on  the  left,  and  Jesus  in  the  midst.  And  the 
Scripture  was  fulfilled  which  saith :  And  with  the 
wicked  He  was  reputed."  Thus  at  last  He  was  lifted 
up  hanging  on  His  gibbet.  And  His  first  act  was  to 
make  His  Cross  a  pulpit  from  which  to  preach  for- 
giveness. 

For  the  first  words  He  heard  were  the  insults  of 
His  enemies:  Vah  !  Vah  !  Save  Thyself.  "And  Jesus 
said :  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what 
they  do."  In  the  entire  Gospel  of  Mercy  there  is  no 
such  miracle  of  love  as  this  plea  of  Jesus  for  His  mur- 


700  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

derers,  the  plea  that  they  are  to  be  pardoned  because 
they  are  ignorant.  And  that  it  is  a  true  plea  is  hard 
to  understand,  for  these  men  should  know  Jesus,  for 
they  knew  the  Scriptures  by  heart ;  and  yet  their  igno- 
rance is  dense  enough  to  be  their  Advocate's  main 
argument  for  their  forgiveness !  Knowledge,  indeed, 
puffeth  up,  says  the  Apostle  ;  and  so  their  knowledge 
but  ministered  to  their  pride,  as  oil  lights  the  lamp 
treacherously  placed  to  misguide  the  wayfarer. 

It  may  be  that  a  cord  was  passed  about  the  body 
of  the  Lord  to  fasten  Him  more  securely  to  the  cross, 
or  drawn  about  His  shoulders  and  arms ;  at  any  rate, 
He  hung  there  firmly  fixed  to  a  symbol  of  shame, 
which  since  then  has  been  better  loved  by  all  gener- 
ous souls  than  monarchs  love  their  thrones.  Did  Jesus 
yet  wear  His  royal  crown, of  thorns?  No  mention  is 
made  of  this  in  the  sacred  narrative,  but  a  constant 
tradition  has  guided  Christian  art  in  placing  it  on 
His  head  in  pictures  and  images  of  the  Crucifixion. 
The  spirit  of  His  enemies  leads  us  to  suppose  that  their 
derision  would  go  thus  far  and  force  the  thorns  into 
His  brow  before  raising  the  cross. 

There,  then,  hung  Jesus  between  two  thieves.  It 
would  have  been  hardly  possible  to  have  given  His 
downfall  greater  ignominy  or  greater  publicity.  He 
was  crucified  at  the  geographical  centre  of  the  known 
world,  and  it  was  the  Holy  Place  of  God's  people  ;  it 
was  also  the  cross-roads  of  commerce  and  travel  be- 
tween the  three  continents.  The  great  deed  required 
but  one  thing  more  to  publish  it  to  the  nations.  "  And 
Pilate  wrote  a  title  also,  the  inscription  of  His  cause, 
and  he  put  it  upon  the  cross,  over  His  head.  And  the 
writing  was:  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  King  of  the  Jews. 
This  title,  therefore,  many  of  the  Jews  did  read,  be- 
cause the  place  where  Jesus  was  crucified  was  nigh  to 


THE  INSCRIPTION. 

the  city,  and  it  was  written  in 
Greek  and  Latin  and  Hebrew  let- 
ters." 

This  was  a  singular  thing  for 
Pilate  to  do,  and  indicates  his  real 
belief  in  the  Messianic  kingship  of  TITLE  OVER  THE  CROSS' 

Jesus  over  the  Jews.  It  had  offended  them ;  and  they 
had  interfered,  though  vainly,  to  prevent  it.  When 
Jesus  was  starting  to  Calvary  Pilate  gave  out  the 
words  for  the  placard  to  be  hung  around  His  neck 
while  on  the  way.  "Then  the  chief  priests  of  the 
Jews  said  to  Pilate  :  Write  not,  The  King  of  the 
Jews,  but  that :  He  said,  I  am  the  King  of  the  Jews. 
Pilate  answered :  What  I  have  written,  I  have 
written."  No  less  than  twelve  different  times  did 
Pontius  Pilate  plead  for  Jesus,  only  to  yield  as  often 
to  his  own  fears  and  the  Jews'  rage,  never  to  stand  his 
ground  like  a  Roman.  And  now  when  the  deed  was 
done  he  obstinately  fought  for  his  placard — a  petty  soul 
the  infamy  of  whose  cowardice  shows  only  the  blacker 
by  contrast  with  this  one  trifling  display  of  courage. 
And  so  Jesus  being  King,  is  crowned  King,  and  en- 
titled King,  and  enthroned  King  on  Calvary.  When 
Satan  had  tempted  Jesus  he  took  Him  to  the  top  of 
a  high  mountain  and  showed  Him  all  the  kingdoms 
of  the  earth,  and  offered  Him  their  empire.  And  now 
our  Saviour's  heavenly  Father  gives  Him  His  throne 
of  eternal  and  universal  sovereignty  upon  a  mountain 
of  suffering  and  of  love.  Meantime  the  soldiers  were 
dividing  our  Saviour's  garments.  A  linen  cloth  about 
the  loins  was  left  Jesus  as  a  covering,  for  the  Romans 
did  not  strip  the  crucified  quite  naked.  All  other 
raiment  was  the  soldiers'  perquisite.  "The  soldiers 
therefore,  when  they  had  crucified  Him,  took  His  gar- 
ments (and  they  made  four  parts,  to  every  soldier  a 


702 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


part),  and  also  His  coat."  His  attire  had  consisted 
of  His  outer  robe  and  cincture,  His  head-dress,  His 
sandals,  and  His  inner  garment  or 
tunic,  called  by  St.  John  his  coat, 
doubtless  the  work  of  Mary's  lov- 
ing hands.  "  Now  the  coat  was 
without  seam,  woven  from  the  top 
throughout.  They  said  then  one 
to  another :  L,et  us  not  cut  it,  but 
let  us  cast  lots  for  it  whose  it  shall 
be.  That  the  Scripture  might  be 
fulfilled,  saying  :  They  have  parted 
My  garments  among  them;  and 
upon  My  vesture  they  have  cast 
lots"  Very  probably  these  poor 
perquisites  of  the  executioners 
were  thus  carefully  secured  in 
order  to  be  sold  as  relics  to  His 
loving  friends. 

The  Evangelists  thus  describe 

the  groups  and  persons  present :  * '  And  the  soldiers 
indeed  did  these  things."  "  And  they  sat  and  watched 
Him."  "And  the  people  stood  beholding." 


CHAPTER  LIV. 

THE     TRIUMPH     OF    THE     CONSPIRATORS. THE    GOOD 

THIEF. — "  WOMAN,    BEHOLD   THY   SON." 

Matt,  xxvii.  35-44 ;  Mark  xv.    24-32 ;   Luke  xxiii. 

34-43  :  John  xix-  23~27- 

THERE  was  a  vast  throng — standing,  gazing,  mov- 
ing and  passing,  talking  and  blaspheming — around  the 
Cross  of  Jesus.  He  was  raised  above  them,  hanging 
in  great  agony  by  tlie  nails,  perhaps,  as  already  sur- 
mised, also  tied  to  His  gibbet  by  ropes ;  and  so  He 


TRIUMPH  OF  THE  CONSPIRA  TORS.  703 

looked  upon  the  multitude,  looked  upon  the  walls  and 
roofs  of  the  city,  looked  in  spirit  upon  the  whole 
human  race  He  loved  so  devotedly. 

But  He  first  sees  His  bitterest  enemies,  and  they 
instantly  absorb  His  profoundest  pity — not  His  dis- 
ciples nor  the  holy  women,  no,  not  even  His  mother. 
His  enemies  win  His  first  care  and  attention.  It  is 
easily  known  from  this  how  Jesus  ranks  the  various 
classes  whom  He  came  to  serve  and  save :  with  Him 
sinners  are  first,  and  among  sinners  the  vilest  outrank 
all  others  in  His  esteem.  And  what  was  their  feel- 
ing towards  Him  ?  Hate  triumphant ;  especially  over 
His  downfall  as  a  miracle- worker.  He  loved  them  too 
well  to  save  Himself  the  pain  of  redeeming  them. 
They  hated  Him  the  more  because  He  was  at  last  at 
the  end  of  His  miracles,  as  they  thought.  I/ittle  did 
they  dream  that  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary  was  His  fore- 
most miracle.  To  ask  Him  to  come  down  from  His 
cross  by  a  miracle  was  to  ask  Him  to  substitute  for 
the  greatest  miracle  of  love  the  least  miracle  of  power. 

They  mock  Him  by  recalling  His  prophecy  about 
the  Temple.  History  has  shown  how  utterly  the  death 
of  Jesus  Christ  has  overthrown  the  Temple  of  Jeru- 
salem and  searched  and  cleansed  away  the  last  traces 
of  its  foundations  with  wrathful  fire.  Yet  faith  in 
that  Temple's  eternal  endurance  was  what  inspired  the 
victorious  conspirators  as  they  cast  insults  into  the 
face  of  their  dying  Victim  on  Calvary.  "  Vah ! 
Thou  who  destroyest  the  Temple  of  God,  and  in  three 
days  buildest  it  up  again,  save  Thy  own  self." 

This  was  a  repetition  of  one  of  the  accusations  be- 
fore Caiphas,  and  was  followed  up  by  the  other:  "  If 
Thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  come  down  from  the  cross. 
In  like  manner  also  the  chief  priests,  with  the  scribes 
and  ancients,  mocking,  said  one  to  another :  He  saved 


704 


The  soldiers,  therefore,  when  they  had 
crucified  him,  took  his  garments  (and  they 
made  four  parts,  to  every  soldier  a  part), 
and  also  his  coat.  Now  the  coat  was  with- 
out seam,  woven  from  the  top  throughout. 
They  said  then  one  to  another :  Let  us  not 
cut  it,  but  let  us  cast  lots  for  it  whose  it 
shall  be  ;  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which 
was  spoken  of  by  the  prophet,  saying : 
They  divided  my  garments  among  them,  and 
upon  my  vesture  they  c  st  lots.  And  the 
soldiers  indeed  did  these  things.  And 
they  sat  and  watched  him  And  the  people 
stood  beholding.  And  they  that  passed 
by  blasphemed  him,  wagging  their  heads 
and  saying :  Vah !  Thou  that  destroyest 
t.ie  Temple  of  God,  and  in  three  days  dost 
rebuild  it,  save  thy  own  self.  If  thou  be 
the  Son  of  God,  come  down  from  the 
cross.  In  like  manner  also  the  chief 
priests,  with  the  scribes  and  ancients,  mock- 
ing, said  one  to  another  :  He  saved  others, 
himself  he  cannot  save.  Let  Christ  the 
King  of  Israel  come  down  now  from  the 
cross,  that  we  may  see  and  believe.  He 
trusted  in  God,  let  him  now  deliver  him  if 
he  will  have  him,  for  he  said  :  I  am  the  Son 
of  God.  And  the  soldiers  also  mocked 
him,  coming  to  him  and  offering  him  vine- 
gar, and  saying  :  If  thou  be  the  King  of  the 
Jews,  save  thyself.  And  the  self-same 
thing  the  thieves  also,  that  were  crucified 
with  him,  reproached  him  with.  And  one 
of  those  robbers  who  were  hanged,  blas- 
phemed him,  saying  :  If  thou  be  Christ, 
save  thyself  and  us  But  the  other  an- 
swering, rebuked  him,  saying :  Neither 
dost  thou  fear  God,  seeing  thou  art  under 
the  same  condemnation  ?  And  we  indeed 
justly,  for  we  receive  the  due  reward  of  our 
deeds,  but  this  man  hath  done  no  evil. 
And  he  said  to  Jesus  :  Lord,  remember  me 
when  thou  shalt  come  into  thy  kingdom. 
And  Jesus  said  to  him  :  Amen,  I  say  to 
ihee,  this  day  thou  shalt  be  with  me  in 
Paradise.  Now  there  stood  by  the  cross 
of  Jesus,  his  mother,  and  his  mother's  sis- 
ter Mary  of  Cleophas,  and  Mary  Magda- 
lene. When  Jesus,  therefore,  had  seen 
his  mother,  and  the  disciple  standing  whom 
he  loved,  he  saith  to  his  mother  :  Woman, 
behold  thy  son.  After  that  he  saith  to  the 
disciple  :  Behold  thy  mother.  And  from 
I  that  hour  the  disciple  took  her  to  his  own. 


say  :    "Call   out 
them  as   we   are 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

others,  Himself  He  cannot  save." 
They  could  not  deny  His  miracles 
as  facts,  but  they  imply  that  God 
had  nothing  to  do  with  them  or 
with  Him.  So  they  continue  with 
bitter  irony  :  ' '  Let  Christ  the  King 
of  Israel  come  down  now  from  the 
Cross,  that  we  may  see  and  believe. 
He  trusted  in  God,  let  Him  now 
deliver  Him  if  He  will  have  Him, 
for  He  said,  I  am  the  Son  of  God." 
They  were  right ;  Christ  must  stand 
or  fall  by  His  claim  to  be  the  Deity 
— He  was  the  only  begotten  Son  of 
God  or  He  was  an  impostor.  A  few 
days  more  and  He  would  display  all 
and  more  than  all  the  divine  power 
they  now  defied  Him  to  exert. 

* '  And  the  soldiers  also  mocked 
Him,  coming  to  Him  and  offering 
Him  vinegar,  saying :  If  Thou  be 
the  King  of  the  Jews,  save  Thy- 
self." Every  Roman,  though  he 
were  but  a  barbarian  under  a  Roman 
soldier's  uniform,  despised  the  pup- 
pet kings  whom  in  various  countries 
the  imperial  city  tolerated  that  they 
might  help  drag  along  the  chariot  of 
her  empire.  It  was  a  holiday  sport 
for  these  men  of  blood  thus  to  tor- 
ture and  kill  a  Jewish  king,  and  so 
they  were  glad  to  insult  Him  in  His 
agony.  "Save  Thyself"— as  if  to 
Thy  followers,  that  we  may  devout 
devouring  Thee."  Saddest  of  all, 


THE  GOOD  THIEF. 


705 


however,  were  .the  insults  of  our  Saviour's  fellow 
sufferers.  "  And  the  self-same  thing  the  thieves 
also,  that  were  crucified  with  Him,  reproached 
Him  with." 

Upon  all  these  revilers  Jesus  had  pity.  He  lavish- 
ed upon  them  His  longings  to  win  their  love,  and, 
as  we  have  the  record  of  His  words,  He  prayed  His 
Father  to  forgive  them,  pleading  in  their  behalf  their 
ignorance.  But  on  His  companions  in  crucifixion  He 
poured  out  a  fuller  flood  of  affection.  Could  He  turn 
His  head  enough  to  look  at  them?  We  cannot  tell. 
At  any  rate  He  could  speak  to  them.  The  result  of 
His  pity  was  the  conversion  of  the  one  since  known  as 
the  Good  Thief,  but  alas !  only  the  hardening  of  the 
other's  heart.  ''And  one  of  those  robbers  who  were 
hanged,  blasphemed  Him,  saying :  If  Thou  be  Christ, 
save  Thyself  and  us.  But  the  other  answering,  re- 
buked Him,  saying  :  Neither  dost  thou  fear  God,  see- 
ing thou  art  under  the  same  condemnation  ?  And  we 
indeed  justly,  for  we  receive  the  due  reward  of  our 
deeds,  but  this  man  hath  done  no  evil."  So  humble 
a  confession,  joined  with  so  earnest  an  exhortation  to 
his  perverse  companion,  won  a  great  reward. 
The  Spirit  of  Jesus  inspired  the  repentant  thief 
to  pray  for  pardon.  "And  he  said  to  Jesus  : 
Lord,  remember  me  when  Thou  shalt  come  into 
Thy  kingdom.  And  Jesus  said  to  him :  Amen, 
I  say  to  thee,  this  day  thou  shalt  be  with  Me 
in  Paradise."  How  quickly  was  the  penitent 
thief  s  prayer  granted  ;  and  how  singular  the 
choice  of  Jesus,  thus  to  bring  into  paradise  as 
the  first-fruits  of  His  Crucifixion  the  soul  of 
a  most  depraved  and  abandoned  malefactor  ! 

But  a  very  different  soul  was  there  demand- 
ing His  recognition,  for  "there  stood   by  the 


706  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Cross  of  Jesus  His  mother,"  Mary.  God  had  so  des- 
tined. Among  the  last  of  the  Messianic  prophecies 
was  that  of  Simeon  to  her  :  "  Thine  own  soul  a  sword 
shall  pierce,  that  out  of  many  hearts  thoughts  may  be 
revealed."  The  pangs  of  child-birth  from  which  she 
had  been  exempted  at  Bethlehem  are  to  be  more  than 
endured  on  Calvary. 

Where  had  she  been  all  this  dreadful  time  ?     Doubt- 
less the  Lord  and  she  had  arranged  for  all  her  hours 
of    sorrowful   waiting   till   He   should   bid  her 
adieu  under  the  Cross.     And  now,    supported 
by  the  foremost  of  her  band  of  ministering  wo- 
men, including  the  holy  penitent,  Magdalene, 
she  takes  her   faithful   stand   beneath  it,  John 
the     beloved     disciple    waiting 
near.     What  did  she  say  to  her 
Son  ?  We  know  not.     But  some 
words    of   love    and    sympathy 

and  encouragement  He  must  have  heard  from 
her  sweet,  motherly  voice,  taking  the  place  of 
those  tones  of  comfort  which  no  longer  came  to 
Him  from  His  angels  or  from  the  darkening  and 
silent  heavens. 

Of  all  living  mortals  none  but  Mary  could  so  well 
join  Jesus  in  His  sacrifice  to  the  Father,'  for  she 
alone  held  His  entire  secret  in  her  mother's  heart :  her 
knowledge  and  her  love  attained  the  fulness  of  human 
capacity,  and  therefore  her  co-operation  in  Calvary's 
atonement.  She  offers  Him  to  God,  and  she  offers 
herself ;  she  is  the  noblest  trophy  of  His  redeeming 
love.  She  is  here  typical  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in 
her  oflering  of  herself  and  all  her  children  to  God 
with  Christ  in  the  daily  sacrifice  of  the  Eucharist. 

Jesus  made  her  loving  presence  at  His  cross,  side 
by  side  with  His  beloved  disciple,  the  occasion  for  the 


"  WOMAN,  BEHOLD  THY  SON.''  707 

solemn  adoption  of  all  our  race  into  the  Holy  Family, 
that  she  might  become  the  Great  Mother  of  us  all. 
"  Now  there  stood  by  the  Cross  of  Jesus,  His  Mother, 
and  His  Mother's  sister  Mary  of  Cleophas,  and 
Mary  Magdalene.  When  Jesus,  therefore,  had 
seen  His  Mother,  and  the  disciple  standing 
whom  He  loved,  He  saith  to  His  Mother :  Wo- 
man, behold  thy  son.  After  that  He  saith  to 
the  disciple  :  Behold  thy  mother.  And  from 
that  hour  the  disciple  took  her  to  his  own." 
When  He  said,  "  Woman,  behold  thy  son," 
she  might  have  thought  that  He  meant,  Look 
upon  Me,  thy  Son,  and  upon  this  My  last  extremity 
of  woe — Me  whom  thou  didst  devour  with  thy  loving 
looks  when  I  was  born.  But  no,  it  is  another  son 
He  bids  her  look  upon. 

The  colloquy  of  the  enemies,  the  colloquy  of  the 
robbers,  the  colloquy  of  the  friends — how  terrible  it 
all  is,  and  how  heart-rending,  and  how  wonderfully 
instructive  of  the  love  of  God  for  man  ! 

The  colloquy  with  Mary  is  very  touching.  Would 
that  we  had  it  complete,  for  these  two  most  brief  sen- 
tences can  be -but  a  fragment.  They  reveal  to  us, 
however,  much  more  than  their  literal  meaning.  We 
learn  that  Joseph  was  certainly  dead,  for  otherwise 
Jesus  would  have  had  no  need  of  providing  Mary 
a  protector;  also  that  Mary  had  lived  like  her  Son 
the  past  three  years,  a  wandering  and  homeless  life ; 
and  that  her  Son  in  His  torment  of  mind  and  body 
did  not  forget  to  provide  in  the  home  of  the  beloved 
disciple  a  harbor  of  refuge  for  her  who  had  loved 
Him  first,  and  last,  and  best  of  all  the  human  race. 


708 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER  LV. 

THE  DEATH  OP  JESUS. 

Matt,  xxvii.  45-30  ;  Mark  xv.  jj-j/  /  Luke  xxiii.  44-46; 
John  xix.  29—30. 

AND  now  the  event  expected  for  so  many  ages  is 
about  to  take   place.     Jesus  is  dying. 

"  And  it  was  almost  the  sixth  hour;  and  when  the 
sixth  hour  was  come,  there  was  darkness  over  the 
whole  earth  until  the  ninth  hour ;  and  the  sun  was 
darkened."  This  was  not  an  ordinary  eclipse,  but 
a  miracle.  God  the  Creator  veiled  the  bright  face 
of  nature  in  token  of  the  shamefulness  of  such  a  deed 
as  men  were  about  to  commit.  "  And  at  the  ninth 
hour  Jesus  cried  out  with  a  loud  voice,  saying  :  Eloi  ! 
Eloi !  lamma  sabacthani  ?  Which  is,  being  inter- 
preted :  My  God !  My  God !  why  hast  thou  forsaken 
Me  f  And  some  of  the  standers-by  hearing,  said : 
Behold,  He  calleth  Elias." 

It  was  the  cry  of  a  desolate 
heart,  a  mind  accustomed  to  inti- 
mate union  with  the  Deity,  now 
banished  into  the  gloomiest  depths 
of  misery :  disappointment  and  the 
sense  of  failure,  acute  mental  agony 
suffered  amid  the  most  excruciating 
bodily  torments.  And  joined  with 
this  loud  plaint  of  spiritual  anguish 
was  the  only  complaint  He  ever 
made  on  account  of  bodily  pain. 
' 'Afterwards  Jesus,  knowing  that 
all  things  were  now  accomplished, 
that  the  Scripture  might  be  fulfilled, 
said:  I  thirst."  Was  not  this  a 


And  it  was  almost  the  sixth  hour  ;  and 
when  the  sixth  hour  was  come,  there  was 
darkness  over  the  whole  earth  until  the 
ninth  hour;  and  the  sun  was  darkened. 
And  at  the  ninth  hour  Jesus  cried  out  with 
a  loud  voice,  saying :  Eloi  I  Eloi !  lamma 
sabacthani?  Which  is,  being  interpreted  : 
My  God /  My  God!  why  hast  thou  forsaken 
me  ?  And  some  of  the  standers-by  hearing, 
said:  Behold,  he  calleth  Elias.  After- 
wards Jesus,  knowing  that  all  things  were 
now  accomplished,  that  the  Scripture  might 
be  fulfilled,  said  :  I  thirst.  Now  there  was 
a  vessel  set  full  of  vinegar  ;  and  immediate- 
ly one  of  them  running,  took  a  sponge  and 
filled  it  with  vinegar,  and  putting  it  upon  a 
reed,  put  it  to  his  mouth,  and  gave  him  to 
drink.  And  the  others  said  :  Let  be,  let  us 
see  whether  Elias  will  come  to  deliver  him. 
Jesus,  therefore,  when  he  had  taken  the 
vinegar,  said:  It  is  consummated.  And 
Jesus  again  crying  with  a  loud  voice,  said  : 
Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my 
spirit.  And  saying  this,  and  bowing  his 
head,  he  gave  up  the  ghost. 


THE  DEA  TH  OF  JESUS.  70$ 

special  atonement  for  the 
dreadful    sin   of  drunken- 
ness?     Many  millions  of 
Catholic  abstainers   think 
so,  and   are  approved    by 
Holy  Church    in    echoing 
this  dying  cry  of  Jesus  and 
making   it    part    of   their 
pledge.    The  answer  of  the  drunk- 
ard to  this  complaint  of  Jesus  is 
different,  and  it  was  well  expressed  by 
their  representative  that  day.     "Now 
there  was  a  vessel  set  there  full  of  vine- 
gar ;  and  immediately  one  of  them  run- 
ning, took  a  sponge  and  filled  it  with 
vinegar,    and  putting  it  upon  a  reed, 
put  it  to  His  mouth,  and  gave  Him  to 
drink . "    But  this  was  not  insult  enough  ; 
a  banter  about  Elias  coming  down  from 
heaven    to    rescue    Him    was    added  : 
"And  the  others  said  :    L,et  be,  let  us 
see  whether  Klias  will  come  to  deliver  Him. 
Jesus,  therefore,  when  He  had  taken  the 
vinegar,    said:    It   is   consummated."     It 
was  the  end  and  sum  of  what  God  would 
permit  men  to  do  in  putting  Him  to  torture 

and    death.  •' Why  hast  Thou  forsake* 

Many  writers  think  that  the  scourging  of  Jesus 
was  cruel  enough  to  kill  Him,  and  that  His  life  was 
saved  for  the  Cross  by  a  miracle.  But  this  is  only 
conjecture.  Perhaps  even  the  Cross  may  not  have 
been  enough  to  kill  Him.  Jesus  might  have  outlived 
the  three  hours  of  His  crucifixion.  He  was  a  strong 
man.  He  had  the  hardy  nerves  of  a  workman,  a 
muscular  and  sinewy  frame ;  He  could  bear  suffer- 


710 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


^ 


ing  well.  But  everything  indicates  that  the 
emotional  faculties  of  His  nature  were  tried  be- 
yond endurance.  Jesus  had  already  suffered 
crucifixion  of  the  heart.  The  ingratitude  of 
the  Jews,  the  cowardice  of  His  friends,  the  be- 
rayal by  Judas,  the  denial  of  Peter,  the  horri- 
ble shouts  '  '  Crucify  Him  !  '  '  weighed  down  His 
spirits  with  deadly  weariness.  But  His  cry  of 
anguish  to  His  Father  reveals  a  greater  pain 
than  'even  this.  Jesus  was  under  Heaven's  ban 
for  our  guilty  sakes.  He  was  made  anathema 
and,  as  far  as  could  be,  cast  off  and  abandoned  by  His 
eternal  Father,  devoted,  destined,  and  set  apart  to  bear 
all  the  punishment  due  to  all  the  sinners  of  the  world, 
and  to  be  the  sacrifice  of  atonement  for  all  the  sins  of 
men  :  the  curse  of  all  sin  fell  upon  Jesus  for  the  sake 
of  saving  sinners,  and  with  the  curse  the  punishment. 
This  was  consummated  by  the  Father  plunging  the  soul 
of  Jesus  into  the  fulness  of  all  the  punishment  due  to 
sin,  everything  except  the  reality  of  personal  guilt. 
And  all  this  sense  of  the  insulted  majesty  of  the  Deity 
and  the  ruin  of  the  souls  of  the  damned  was  crossed 
by  the  most  intense  love  of  Jesus  for  God  His  Father 
and  for  all  men  His  brothers.  The  conflict  was  a 
piercing  pain  impossible  to  bear  and  impossible  to  be 
rid  of  but  by  death.  And  death  now  drew  near.  The 
end  was  at  hand.  "And  Jesus  again  crying  with  a 
loud  voice,  said  :  Father,  into  Thy  hands  I  commend 
My  Spirit." 

"  And  saying  this,  and  bowing  His  head,  He  gave 
up  the  ghost." 

As  He  uttered  His  last  cry  of  mingled  terror  and 
love  His  face  grew  ashy  pale,  His  poor  blood-streaked 
limbs  stiffened,  His  eyes  were  glazed  over,  His  blue 
lips  parted  and  His  jaw  fell.  Slowly  that  gentle  face 


THE  DEA  TH  OF  JESUS.  71 1 

bent  downwards,  as  if  bending  low  in  submission  to 
the  Great  livelier  of  His  race,  DEATH,  and  with  a 
deep-drawn  sigh  our  blessed  and  loving  Redeemer 
breathed  out  His  spirit  into  His  Father's  bosom. 

Our  Saviour  at  last  hung  dead  upon  His  Cross. 

Thus  Calvary  has  been  made  the  altar  for  the 
world's  atoning  sacrifice.  It  is  more  than  this.  It  is 
the  trysting-place  for  all  His  lovers,  it  is  His  temple, 
His  treasury ;  and  the  cross  is  the  balance  which 
weighs  out  ransom,  the  pulpit  from  which  Incarnate 
love  speaks  the  lesson  of  pardon  to  all  mankind. 

Thus  ended   the  life   of  Jesus   Christ   the   Son  of 
God,  a  life  wholly  devoted  to  the  instruction  of  men 
in   divine  wisdom  and   their   elevation   to   union   with 
God  in   eternal  love   and  joy.      This   mission 
was  all  fulfilled  in  great  sorrow  and  with  many 
disappointments,  and  finally  ended  in  betrayal, 
condemnation,    and    most    ignominious   death. 
And   yet   of   all   His  wisdom   and  all  His  joy 
this  unspeakable  failure  and  misery  and  pain 
of  Calvary  was  destined  to  be  the  fountain  of 
greatest  joy   and   the   chair  of  highest  teach- 
ing.     The   cross  is  the  standard  of  the  vic- 
torious king.  I' I 

The  little  child  will  sign  itself  with  this  ter-  // 
rible  symbol  as  its  first  proud  act  of  conscious  ^iajr 
love  of  God,  and  the  aged  Christian  shall  clasp  )  j 
the  cross  in  his  hands  with  the  clutch  of  a  miser,  (•jtf 
and  feel  its  gentle  streams  of  consolation  flood-  «  Let  be>  let  us 
ing  his  inmost  soul ;  as  he  kisses  it,  its  taste  to  EHas  will  come  to  deliver 
his  dying  lips  will  be  a  foretaste  of  paradise.  Him«" 
Under  this  cross  enemies  hold  tryst  for  mutual  pardon, 
and  friends  are  bound  into  holy  brotherhoods  of  the 
deepest  love.  At  the  end  of  the  world  the  Cross  of  Jesus 
shall  shine  in  the  heavens  to  announce  His  coming. 


712 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


THE   WORDS   OF   CALVARY. 


Write  not,  The  King  of  the  Jews, 
but  that:  He  said,  I  am  the  King  of 
the  Jews.  Pilate  answered  :  What 
I  have  written,  I  have  written. 

Let  us  not  cut  it,  but  let  us  cast 
lots  for  it  whose  it  shall  be. 

Vah !  Thou  that  destroyest  the 
Temple  of  God,  and  in  three  days 
dost  rebuild  it,  save  Thy  own  self.  If 
Thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  come 
down  from  the  Cross. 

He  saved  others,  Himself  He  can- 
not save.  Let  Christ  the  King  of 
Israel  come  down  now  from  the 
Cross,  that  we  may  see  and  believe. 

He  trusted  in  God,  let  Him  now 
deliver  Him  if  He  will  have  Him, 
for  He  said  :  I  am  the  Son  of  God. 

If  Thou  be  the  King  of  the  Jews, 
save  Thyself. 

If  Thou  be  the  Christ,  save  Thy- 
self and  us. 

[But  the  other  robber  said :  ] 
But  this  Man  hath  done  no  evil. 

Lord,  remember  me  when  Thou 
shalt  come  into  Thy  kingdom. 


Behold,  He  calleth   Elias. 
Let  be,  let  us  see  whether  Elias 
will  come  to  deliver  Him. 


WORDS  SPOKEN  BY  JESUS. 


Father,    forgive    them,    for  they 
know  not  what  they  do. 


Amen,    I  say  to  thee,   this   day 
thou  shalt  be  with  Me  in  Paradise. 

Woman,  behold  thy  son. 
Behold  thy  mother. 
Eloi !    Eloi !  lamma    sabacthani  ? 
[My  God!   My   God!   Why  hast 
Thou  forsaken  Me  ?  ] 

I  thirst. 

It  is  consummated. 

Father,    into  Thy  hands  I  com- 
mend My  spirit. 


AFTER  THE  CRUCIFIXION. 


CHAPTER  I,VI. 

AFTER  THE   CRUCIFIXION. 

Matt,  xxvii. 51-56  ;  Mark  xv.  39-41 »  Lukexxiii.  47-49  ; 
John  xix.  31-37. 

JESUS  died  because  He  willed  it.  He  always  held 
the  keys  of  life  and  death,  but  most  willingly  had  He 
delivered  Himself  up  to  the  awful  penalty  of  sin  that 
death  is.  He  had  anticipated,  consented  to,  this  offer- 
ing at  every  step  of  His  passion,  from  His  going  into 
the  garden  till  on  the  cross  He  bowed  His  head  as  if 
motioning  death  to  approach  and  seize  his  victim.  He 
was  always  master  of  His  life,  and  always  gave  it 
up  for  us.  "  No  man,"  He  had  said  long  before, 
"  taketh  My  life  away  from  Me;  but  I  lay  it  down  of 
Myself,  and  I  have  power  to  lay  it 
down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it 
up  again"  (John  x.  18). 

And  .now  that  His  soul  is  liberat- 
ed from  His  body,  Jesus  begins  His 
new  life.  He  does  so  by  entering 
into  His  Father's  Temple  in  Jeru- 
salem, and  solemnly  bringing  to  an 
end  the  ancient  covenant  of  God  with 
the  race  of  Israel :  He  destroys  the 
veil  of  the  holy  of  holies.  "And 
behold  the  veil  of  the  Temple  was 
rent  in  two  from  the  top  even  to  the 
bottom."  The  sacrifice  of  praise 
and  reconciliation  is  transferred  from 
Mount  Moriah  to  Mount  Calvary,  the 
Kucharistic  altar  of  Christ's  per- 
petual atonement. 

"And  the  earth  quaked,  and  the 


714 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

rocks  were  rent,  and  the  graves 
were  opened,  and  many  bodies 
of  the  saints  that  slept,  arose, 
and  coming  out  of  the  tombs 
after  His  resurrection,  came 
into  the  holy  city  and  appeared 
to  many."  The  Kvangelist 
here  anticipates  his  narrative, 
telling  of  what  happened  at  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus — the  com- 
ing forth  from  the  dust  of  the 
tomb  of  those  Israelites  (so  dif- 
ferent from  the  chief  priests) , 
that  they  might  say  farewell 
to  the  ancient  covenant  and 
might  form  an  invisible  escort 
to  Jesus  in  His  subsequent 
teaching.  They  were  His  im- 
mediate care  after  His  death, 

being  the  spirits  to  whom  He  preached  in  their  prison 
house  of  Limbo  (I.  Peter  iii.   19). 

It  was  the  divine  will  that  the  imperial  race  of 
Rome  should  not  lack  a  worthy  representative  at  the 
Cross.  "The  centurion  who  stood  over  against  Him, 
seeing,  that  crying  out  in  this  manner  He  had  given 
up  the  ghost,  said  :  Indeed  this  Man  was  the  Son  of 
God."  He  was  converted  by  Jesus'  sermon  from  the 
Cross.  That  and  the  convulsions  of  nature  had  affect- 
ed the  whole  multitude.  "And  they  that  were  with 
him  watching  Jesus,  having  seen  the  earthquake  and 
the  things  that  were  done,  were  sore  afraid,  saying : 
Indeed  this  was  the  Son  of  God.  And  all  the  multi- 
tude that  were  come  together  to  that  sight,  and  saw 
•the  things  that  were  done,  returned  striking  their 
breasts." 


AFTER  THE  CRUCIFIXION.  715 

11  Indeed  this  Man  was  the  Son  of  God  !  "  The 
men  who  said  this  were  doubtless  the  very  ones  who 
that  same  morning  had  flogged  Jesus,  mocked  and 
spat  on  Him  and  crowned  Him  with  thorns :  who 
even  three  hours  before  had  stripped  Him  and  thrown 
dice  for  His  poor  garments,  and  nailed  His  hands 
and  feet  to  the  wood,  meantime  amused  at  the  insults  of 
the  chief  priests.  But  as  they  stood  out  their  guard, 
as  they  saw  the  heavens  begin  to  darken,  as  they 
heard  the  words  of  Jesus  so  full  of  forgiveness  and 
pity  and  love,  as  they  felt  the  earth  tremble,  and  finally 
as  they  caught  the  first  thrills  of  Calvary's  mighty 
graces  when  He  bowed  His  head  and  died,  they  yielded 
their  rude  nature's  tribute  to  His  sway. 

If  these  portents  of  nature,  the  darkening  sun  and 
the  quivering  earth,  had  so  powerful  an 
effect  on  pagans  and  enemies,  turning  them 
instantly  from  scoffers  into  adorers,  what  a 
gladdening  sensation  they  must  have  given 
to  these  friends  of  Jesus,  including  Mary 
and  many  other  brave  women,  who  had  fol- 
lowed Him  since  long  ago  from  His  distant 
home  in  the  north  and  were  with  Him  now 
at  the  very  end.  "And  His  acquaintance, 
and  the  women  that  had  followed  Him  " Th^  sha"  look  on  *im  whom 

.     .  .  they  pierced." 

from  Galilee  ministering  unto  Him, 
stood  afar  off  beholding  these  things ;  among  whom 
was  Mary  Magdalene  ;  and  Mary  the  mother  of  James 
the  I/ess  and  of  Joseph  ;  and  Salome  the  mother  of 
the  sons  of  Zebedee,  who  also,  when  He  was  in  Gali- 
lee, followed  Him,  and  ministered  to  Him ;  and  many 
other  women  that  came  up  with  Him  to  Jerusalem." 
The  last  stroke  upon  the  body  of  Jesus  was  in- 
flicted after  death  had  ended  pain  and  all  power  of 
feeling  it — the  piercing  of  the  corpse's  side.  When 


716  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Jesus'  body  was  pierced  by  the 
soldier's  spear,  it-  was  the  sacra- 
ments of  Baptism  and  the  Eucharist 
that  were  typified  by  the  water  and 
the  blood  pouring  out  of  His  heart  ; 
that  wound  is  the  Church's  open 
door.  She  is  the  Spouse  of  Christ, 
and  thus  she  was  born  out  of  the 
side  of  the  new  Adam,  as  He  lay 
sleeping  upon  His  altar,  the  Cross. 
The  wound  of  the  soldier's  spear 
was  broad  and  deep,  for  Thomas 
the  Apostle  afterwards  laid  his  hand 
in  it.  It  was  inflicted  on  a  poor 
corpse  to  make  sure  of  already  certain  death,  pro- 
phetically for  the  sake  of  the  resurrection  ;  and  also, 
perhaps,  to  gratify  the  ferocious  scruple  of  the 
chief  priests,  troubled  lest  their  deed  were  not  whol- 
ly done,  or  were  not  bloody  enough.  His  side  was 
thus  opened  ;  and  it  was  left  open  in  His  risen  body, 
that  His  heart  might  have  a  more  direct  road  to  us 
than  even  His  tongue  or  His  lips  or  His  eyes,  and 
that  His  love  might  travel  the  quicker  to  us  when 
treading,  with  His  sacraments,  the  free  path  of  blood 
and  water. 


Then  the  Jews  (because  it  was  the  para- 
sceve)  that  the  bodies  might  not  remain 
upon  the  cross  on  the  sabbath-day  (for  that 
was  a  great  sabbath  day)  besought  Pilate 
that  their  legs  might  be  broken,  and  that 
they  might  be  taken  away  The  soldiers 
therefore  came  :  and  they  broke  the  legs  of 
the  first,  and  of  the  other  that  was  cruci- 
fied with  him  But  after  they  were  come  to 
Jesus,  when  they  saw  that  he  was  already 
dead,  they  did  not  break  his  legs.  But  one 
of  the  soldiers  with  a  spear  opened  his  side, 
and  immediately  there  came  out  blood  and 
water.  And  he  that  saw  it  hath  given 
testimony:  and  his  testimony  is  true.  And 
he  knoweth  that  ho  saith  true  :  that  you 
also  may  believe.  For  these  things  were 
done  that  the  scripture  might  be  fulfilled  : 
You  shall  not  breuk  a  bone  of  him.  And 
igain  another  scripture  saith  :  They  shall 
fyok  on  him  whom  they  pierced. 


THE  BURIAL  OF  JESUS. 


717 


CHAPTER  I/VTI. 

THE   BURIAI,   OF  JESUS. 

Matt,  xxvii.  57-66  ;  Markxv.  42-47  ;  Luke  xxiii.  50-56; 
John  xix.  38-42. 

FALSE  councillors  had  murdered  Jesus,  faithful  ones 
shall  bury  Him.  "And  after  these  things,  when 
evening  was  now  come,  there  came  a 
certain  rich  man  of  Arimathea,  a  city 
of  Judea,  named  Joseph,  who  was  a  no- 
ble councillor,  a  good  and  a  just  man  ; 
(the  same  had  not  consented  to  their 
counsel  and  doings),  who  also  himself 
looked  for  the  kingdom  of  God.  This 
man  came  and  went  in  boldly  to  Pilate 
and  begged  the  body  of  Jesus  (because 
he  was  a  disciple  of  Jesus,  but  secretly 
for  fear  of  the  Jews)."  Once  more  the 
Roman  judge  would  do  something  for 
the  innocent  Victim,  but  not  enough 
to  make  trouble  for  himself.  For  what 
if  Jesus  were  not  really  dead  ?  To  give 
Him  to  Joseph  would  again  bring  upon 
Pilate  the  whole  horde  of  the  Jews. 
1 '  But  Pilate  wondered  that  He  should 
be  already  dead ;  and  sending  for  the 
centurion,  he  asked  him  if  He  were  al- 
ready dead.  And  when  he  had  understood  it  by  the 
centurion,  Pilate  commanded  that  the  body  should  be 
delivered  to  Joseph." 

The  courage  of  these  members  of  the  Sanhedrin, 
Joseph  and  Nicodemus,  though  tardy,  was  genuine. 
The  death  of  the  Saviour  had  already  begun  its 
work,  making  fearless  and  open  friends  of  Jesus  men 


7i8 


[Joseph]  came,  therefore,  and  Nicode- 
mus  also  came,  he  who  at  first  came  to 
Jesus  by  night,  bringing  a  mixture  of 
myrrh  and  aloes,  about  a  hundred  pounds. 
And  Joseph  bringing  fine  linen,  and  tak- 
ing him  down,  wrapped  him  up  in  the  fine 
linen,  with  the  spices,  as  the  manner  of  the 
Jews  is  to  bury.  Now  there  was  in  the 
place  where  he  was  crucified,  a  garden ; 


and  Joseph,  taking  the  body  laid  it  in  his 
own  new  monument,  which  he  had  hewed 
out  in  a  rock,  in  the  garden,  a  new  sepul- 
chre, wherein  no  man  yet  had  been  laid. 
And  he  rolled  a  great  stone  to  the  door  of 
the  monument  and  went  his  way. 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

who  before  had  timidly  crept  to  Him 
under  cover  of  darkness.  It  was 
very  pious  of  Joseph,  a  man  of  note 
and  wealth,  to  give  up  his  own 
tomb  to  Jesus ;  such  an  act  among 
the  Jews  was  like  adopting  Him 


into  his  family. 

The  grave  was  a  trough-like 
cavity  inside  a  rocky  chamber. 
They  would  have  embalmed  Him 
fully,  but  they  had  not  sufficient  time.  "It  was  the 
day  of  the  Parasceve,  and  the  Sabbath  drew  on." 
Sundown  divided  Good  Friday  from  the  Jews'  rest-day, 
and  as  time  had  already  been  consumed  in  dealing 
with  Pilate,  they  could  only  hastily  and  temporarily 
use  the  spices  they  had  purchased  for  embalming  the 
body.  They  loosened  it  most  reverently  from 
the  nails,  and  bore  it  in  their  little  funeral  pro- 
cession into  the  garden  and  laid  Jesus  in  the 
grave — glad,  "  therefore,  because  of  the  Para- 
sceve of  the  Jews,"  that 
the  '  *  sepulchre  was  nigh 
at  hand, ' ' — John  and  Mary 
and  the  other  holy  women 
following  reverently  after 
them. 

This  new  and  bold 
spirit  *in  Joseph  and  Nico- 
demus,  and  the  providen- 
tial nearness  of  the  tomb, 
saved  the  holy  body  from 
the  ignominy  of  hanging 
all  the  Sabbath  day  upon 
the  cross.  And  if  the  cir- 
cumstance of  night  ap- 


THE  BURIAL  OF  JESUS. 


719 


preaching  hindered  the  full  funereal  honors  at  that 
time,  yet  there  were  loving  souls  to  see  to  it  later  on. 
"And  Mary  Magdalene  and  Mary  the  mother  of 
Joseph,  sitting  over  against  the  sepulchre,  beheld  where 
He  was  laid.  And  the  [other]  women  that  were  come 
with  Him  from  Galilee,  following  after,  saw  the  sepul- 
chre, and  how  His  body  was  laid."  Then 
"  returning,  they  prepared  spices  and  oint- 
ments, and  on  the  Sabbath-day  they 
rested  according  to  the  command- 
ment." This  shows  that  these 


720 


He  had  hewed  out  in  a  rock  .  , 
a  new  sepulchre." 

to   them. 

of  the   Resurrection, 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

women  had  themselves  intended  to  pro- 
vide for  embalming  Jesus,  and  that  they 
expected  to  do  it  on  Friday ;  but  when 
the  entombment  took  place  it  was  too 
late  to  purchase  and  prepare  the  spices. 
They  rested  on  the  Sabbath,  and  we 
shall  find  them  on  the  morning  of  the 
Resurrection  coming  back  with  persistent 
affection  to  give  the  body  of  their  beloved 

I    Master  His  full  rites  of  sepulture. 

Meantime  the  chief  priests  asked  Pi- 
late for  soldiers  to  guard  the  tomb. 
They  were  abusive  of  Jesus  and  called 
Him  a  seducer,  but  Pilate  readily  yielded 

How  keenly  they  had  noted  the  prophesy 
which    even    the   disciples    had 


not  understood! 

The  guard  was  a  detail  of  Roman 
soldiers,  probably  the  usual  number 
of  sixteen,  making  a  relief  watch  of 
four  men.  The  grave  was  sealed 
officially  ;  that  is  to  say,  a  cord  was 
drawn  across  it  and  fixed  with  wax 
to  the  rock  on  either  side.  A  pitiful 
provision  it  was,  a  handful  of  sol- 
diers and  a  bit  of  cord  and  wax  to 
imprison  the  Master  of  the  uni- 


And  the  next  day,  which  followed  the 
day  of  preparation,  the  chief  priests  and 
the  Pharisees  came  together  to  Pilate,  say- 
ing: Sir,  we  have  remembered,  that  that 
seducer  said,  while  he  was  yet  alive  :  After 
three  days  1  will  rise  again.  Command 
therefore  the  sepulchre  to  be  guarded  until 
the  third  day :  lest  perhaps  his  disciples 
come,  and  steal  him  away,  and  say  to  the 
people,  he  is  risen  from  the  dead  :  and  the 
last  error  shall  be  worse  than  the  first. 
Pilate  said  to  them  :  You  have  a  guard  : 
go,  guard  it  as  you  know.  And  they  de- 
parting, made  the  sepulchre  sure,  sealing 
the  stone,  and  setting  guards. 


verse!  But  this  was  just  as  strong  as  all  of  Rome's 
legions  and  all  of  hell's  legions  would  have  been 
to  keep  Jesus  in  His  grave. 


BOOK  IV. 


The  Resurrection. 


721-722 


RARBONI  ! — MASTER. 


THE;  RESURRECTION. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE  RESURRECTION. — THE  EMPTY  SEPULCHRE. 

Matt,  xxviii.  1-15  ;  Mark  xvi.  T-II  ;  Luke  xxiv.  1-12  ; 
fohn  xx.  1-18. 

"  But  Jesus  [rose]  early  the  first  day  of  t lie 
week.  And  behold  tliere  was  a  great  earth- 
quake. For  an  angel  of  the  Lord  descended 
from  lieaveii ;  and  coming:  rolled  back  the 
stone,  and  sat  upon  it.  And  his  countenance 
was  as  lightning,  and  his  raiment  as  snow. 
And  for  fear  of  him,  the  guards  were  struck 
with  terror,  and  became  as  dead  men." 

The  Crucifixion  had  driven  the  Apostles  into  hid- 
ing. Peter  and  John  had  become  separated  from  the 
others,  and  had  spent  the  two  nights  and  the  Sabbath 
day  between  Friday  and  Sunday — where  ?  Some  sup- 
pose in  the  supper-room.  But  wherever  it  was,  it  was 


724 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


in  anguish,  alarmed  at  every  sound,  doubting  the 
future,  and  yet  striving  to  hold  fast  to  their  faith 
in  the  Lord's  incomprehensible  words,  "I  will  rise 
again."  As  they  were  stirring  with  the  first  light 
of  SundajT  morning,  Mary  Magdalene  suddenly  burst 
in  upon  them  and  shocked  them :  ' '  They  have  taken 
away  the  body  of  the  Lord  !  "  she  cried.  They  stared 
at  her,  as  she  stood  panting  and  beside  herself;  and 
then  she  sat  down,  glared  upon  them,  wept,  and  in 
a  moment  was  gone  again.  This  was  the  earliest  an- 
nouncement of  the  Resurrection. 

Thus  what  was  first  known  of  the  Resurrection, 
as  far  as  recorded,  was  not  the  sight  of  the  risen 
Saviour  but  the  empty  tomb.  This  startling  discov- 
ery was  made  by  some  of  the  holy  women ;  that  is  to 
say,  Mary  Magdalene,  Mary  the  mother  of  James  and 
Salome.  After  the  burial  on  Friday  afternoon  they 
were  driven  away  from  the  tomb  by  the  soldiers  ap- 
pointed to  guard  it,  and  they  had 
gone  (we  may  surmise)  to  Bethany 
and  there  spent  the  night  of  Friday, 
and  waited  till  the  slow-moving  hours 
of  Saturday  had  brought  sundown 
and  the  end  of  the  Sabbath  rest. 
They  then  went  into  the  city,  and  in 
the  evening  twilight  bought  the  drugs 
necessary  for  the  embalmment,  and 
returned  to  Bethany.  Sunday  morn- 
ing they  started  for  the  sepulchre, 
passing  through  the  city  in  the  first 
faint  rays  of  light,  asking  each  other 
how  they  should  get  help  to  open  the 
grave,  how  they  should  manage  with 
the  soldiers.  It  was  not  yet  full  day- 
light in  the  garden  amid  the  shadows 


THE  RESURRECTION. 


725 


of  the  trees,  though  the  Tem- 
ple's pinnacles  were  golden  with 
the  light  of  the  risen  sun  — 
("yet  dark,"  "dawn,"  "the 
sun  being  now  risen") — when 
they  arrived  at  the  tomb. 

They  find  the  tomb  empty  ! 

They  were  all  terrified  at  this 
sight,  but  Magdalene,  it  would 
seem,  more  so  than  her  two 
companions.  She  started  off 
at  once,  and  alone,  to  where 
Peter  and  John  were  known  to 
be  in  hiding. 

The  Scripture  account  of 
this  first  event  in  the  history  of 
the  Saviour's  resurrection,  tell- 
ing of  the  women's  purpose,  and 
of  their  journey  and  the  dis- 
covery of  the  absence  of  the  body  of  Jesus,  is  as 
follows  :  "  And  in  the  end  of  the  Sabbath,  when  it 
began  to  dawn,  towards  the  first  day  of  the  week 
very  early  in  the  morning,  it  being  yet  dark,  came 
Mary  Magdalene  and  the  other  Mary  [the  mother] 
of  James  and  Salome,  bringing  the  spices  which  they 
had  prepared,  to  see  the  sepulchre.  And  they  said 
one  to  another :  Who  shall  roll  us  back  the  stone 
from  the  door  of  the  sepulchre  ?  And  they  came  to 
the  sepulchre,  the  sun  being  now  risen.  And  look- 
ing, they  saw  the  stone  rolled  back  from  the  sepulchre. 
For  it  was  very  great.  And  going  in  they  found  not 
the  body  of  the  Lord  Jesus." 

Mary  Magdalene,  as  we  have  seen,  ran  to  find 
Peter,  leaving  the  company  of  Mary  mother  of  James 
and  Salome  for  that  purpose.  These  women  on  their 


726 


LIFE  OF  JESUS 


part   started  in  a   different  direction   to  find  the  nine 
other  Apostles.     They   had  not   gone  far  before  they 
were  joined   by  a   second   party   of  the  holy   women. 
These    had   passed   the    night   in    the   city   and   now 
came  to  assist   in  anointing  the  Lord's  body.     Mary 
of  James  and  her  companion  met  them,  told 
;,them  of  the  empty  grave,  and  went  back  with 
them,  that  they  might  behold  the  wonderful 
\,  fact  for  themselves.   As  they  all  drew  near  to 

"  The  guards  were  struck  with 
terror  and  became  as  dead  men."  the    Sepulchre    a    marvellous  vision    of  ailgels 

was  granted  to  them.  "  And  it  came  to 
pass  while  they  were  astonished  in  mind 
at  this,  behold,  two  men  stood  by  them 
in  shining  apparel.  And  as  they  were 
afraid  and  bowed  down  their  counte- 
nance towards  the  ground,  the  angel 
answering,  said  to  the  women :  Fear 
not  you ;  for  I  know  that  you  seek 
Jesus  who  was  crucified.  Why  seek 
3^ou  the  living  among  the  dead  ?  He  is 
not  here,  but  is  risen.  Come  and  see 
the  place  where  the  Lord  was  laid.  Re- 
member how  He  spoke  to  you,  when 
He  was  yet  in  Galilee,  saying:  The 
Son  of  Man  must  be  delivered  into 
the  hands  of  sinful  men,  and  be  cru- 
cified, and  the  third  day  rise  again. 
And  going  quickly,  tell  ye  His  dis- 
ciples, and  Peter,  that  He  is  risen, 
and  that  He  goeth  before  you  into 
Galilee  ;  there  you  shall  see  Him,  as 
He  told  you.  Lo,  I  have  foretold 
it  to  you.  And  they  remembered 
His  words.  And  they  went  out 
quickly  from  the  sepulchre,  (and) 


THE  EMPTY  SEPULCHRE. 


727 


fled  with  fear  and  great  joy,  running  to  tell  His  dis- 
ciples." 

But  Mary  Magdalene  having  ran  off  before  the 
angels  appeared  could  not  announce  to  Peter  and 
John  that  the  Master  had  risen,  could  not  tell 
of  any  angelic  messengers,  but  only  that  the 
body  of  Jesus  was  gone  from  the  tomb.  She 
"  cometh  to  Simon  Peter  and  to  the  other  dis- 
ciple whom  Jesus  loved,  and  saith  to  them : 
They  have  taken  away  the  L,ord  out  of  the 
sepulchre,  and  we  know  not  where  they  have 
laid  Him.  Peter,  therefore,  went  out,  and  that 
other  disciple."  The  two  disciples  and  Mag- 
dalene thus  started  together  in  great  haste  to- 
wards the  sepulchre,  but  she  was  too  weak  with  scended 

sorrow   and  watching  to  keep  up  with   them  ;  from  Heaven ;  and  coming 

,        ^    /  '    rolled  back  the  stone." 

they  were  strong  men  and  ran  fast ;  they 

soon  left  her  far  behind.  Peter  and  John 
soon  arrived  at  the  garden,  and  viewing 
with  amazement  the  empty  grave,  depart- 
ed again  before  Mary  overtook  them. 
They  had  found  no  angels,  no  guards, 
none  of  the  women,  much  less  their  risen 
Master;  but  there  in  the  stillness  of  the 
early  morning  is  the  empty  grave, — the 
place  is  all  vacant  and  deserted.  What 
awe  must  have  filled  their  souls,  what 
anticipations  and  longings,  as  they  looked 
and  wondered  and  prayed  !  '  *  And  they 
came  to  the  sepulchre.  And  they  both 
did  run  together,  and  that  other  disciple 
outran  Peter,  and  came  first  to  the  sepul- 
chre. And  when  he  stooped  down,  he 
saw  the  linen  cloths  lying ;  but  yet  he 


went  not  in.     Then  cometh  Simon  Peter, 


"  Why  seek  you  the  living  among  the 
dead?" 


728  LIFE  OF  *jESVS  CHRIST. 

following  him,  and  went  into  the  sepulchre,  and  saw 
the  linen  cloths  lying.  And  the  napkin  that  had 
been  about  His  head,  not  lying  with  the  linen  cloths, 
but  apart,  wrapt  up  into  one  place.  Then  that  other 
disciple  went  in,  who  came  first  to  the  sepulchre,  and 
he  saw,  and  believed.  For  as  yet  they  knew  not  the 
Scripture,  that  He  must  rise  again  from  the  dead. 
So  the  disciples  went  away  again  to  their  homes.  And 
Peter  went  away  wondering  in  himself  at  that  which 
was  come  to  pass." 

Thus  did  Peter  and  John  learn  of  the  Resurrection  : 
they  saw  the  empty  tomb  and  believed — not,  as  the 
wondering  soul  of  Mary  had  fancied,  that  the  body 
had  been  removed  by  enemies,  but  they  were  con- 
vinced that  Jesus  had  kept  the  Scripture  prophecy  and 
had  risen  from  the  dead.  To  Peter,  especially,  this 
was  a  glorious  event,  about  which  lie  communed  not 
only  with  his  well-loved  brother  dicciple,  but  with  his 
own  heart  of  hearts,  so  recently  wounded  by  the  deep 
sin  of  denial  of  his  Master,  and  healed  by  His  gracious 
pardon. 


JESUS  APPEARS  TO  MARY  MAGDALENE.  729 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  APPARITION  OF  JKSUS  TO  MARY  MAGDALENE. 
Mark  xvi.  10,  n  ;  John  xx.  11-18. 

where  was  the  Risen  L,ord  ?  Before  un- 
dertaking to  answer  let  us  consider  His 
Soul's  mission  between  the  moment  of 
His  death  and  that  of  His  resurrection. 
The  time  between  the  death  of  Jesus 
and  His  resurrection  was  but  two  nights 
and  part  of  three  days,  yet  it  formed  a 
great  cycle  in  the  eternal  years.  By  the  swift  power 
of  God  the  redemption  of  man,  the  predestination  of 
the  elect  and  the  sanctification  of  the  Church,  were 
all  consummated  by  the  Soul  of  Christ  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Trinity  during  that  brief  interval.  He  also 
visited  that  mysterious  place  of  detention  in  which 
with  patient  faith  and  love  the  souls  of  the  patri- 
archs and  of  all  the  just  who  had  died  before  Him 
awaited  Him:  "In  which  also  coming  He  preached 
to  those  spirits  that  were  in  prison  "  (I.  Peter  iii.  19). 
Of  this  spiritual  evangelization  we  know  little,  and 
cannot  know  much  more  than  that  Jesus  announced 
to  those  holy  men  and  women  that  His  Father  had 
kept  the  covenant,  and  that  Israel  was  redeemed. 
We  know,  too,  that  the  soul  of  Jesus  on  His  return 
to  earth  was  solemnly  escorted  by  many  of  these 
patriarchs,  some  of  whom  rose  again  in  their  bodies 
and  appeared  in  the  streets  of  the  Holy  City  (Matt, 
xxvii.  52,  53).  The  angels  also  shared  His  glory; 
for  when  His  soul  returned  to  the  tomb  and  broke  it 
open  and  resumed  its  body,  mighty  spirits  assisted 
Him,  shaking  the  earth  with  their  march  of  triumph. 
But  where  was  the  Risen  L,ord  between  His  resur- 


730  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

rection  and  His  first  recorded  apparition,  and  how 
was  He  occupied  ?  In  answering  these  questions  the 
mind  naturally  turns  to  the  Mother  of  Jesus.  The 
holy  women,  when  they  came  to  the  sepulchre  Sun- 
day morning,  had  left  her,  as  is  evident,  in  their 
place  of  waiting.  Why  would  she  consent  to  this? 
Could  she,  the  mother  who  had  stood  at  His  cross 
on  Calvary,  fail  to  go  to  the  anointing  of  His  body 
except  she  had  a  supernatural  intimation  from 
her  Son's  soul  to  await  Him  and  meet  Him  where 
she  was  ?  To  whom  should  His  first  apparition 
be  granted  if  not  to  her  whose  womb  had 
been  His  happy  sepulchre  before  He  was 
born,  and  who  had  received  His  first  greet- 
ings when  He  came  into  this  world  ?  We  are 
not  surprised,  therefore,  that  St.  Ambrose 
witnesses  to  a  tradition  of  the  early  Church 
that  Jesus  appeared  first  of  all  and  immedi- 
ately after  His  resurrection  to  His  mother. 
But  His  first  recorded  appearance  was 
to  Mary  Magdalene.  We  have  seen  how 
she  had  brought  the  news  of  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  divine  body  to  Peter 
and  John,  and  how  in  running  back  to  the  sepulchre, 
she,  being  all  wearied  by  watching  and  journeying 
and  heart-ache,  had  been  left  behind  by  the  two 
Apostles,  and  only  arrived  at  the  tomb  after  they 
had  come  and  gone,  after  even  her  former  female  com- 
panions had  returned  again,  had  conversed  with  the 
angels,  and  had  once  more  departed.  This  was  all 
arranged  by  divine  appointment.  For  it  was  the  Mas- 
ter's will  to  reward  this  much-loving  penitent  with 
the  high  honor  of  His  first  recorded  appearance.  The 
narrative  is  one  of  surpassing  interest : 

"But  Mary  stood  at  the  sepulchre  without,   weep- 


JESUS  APPEARS  TO  MARY  MAGDALENE.  731 

ing.  Now  as  she  was  weeping,  she  stooped  down, 
and  looked  into  the  sepulchre:  And  she  saw  two 
angels  in  white,  sitting,  one  at  the  head,  and  one 
at  the  feet,  where  the  body  of  Jesus  had  been  laid. 
They  say  to  her :  Woman,  why  weepest  thou  ?  She 
saith  to  them :  Because  they  have  taken  away  my 
L<ord  :  and  I  know  not  where  they  have  laid  Him. 
When  she  had  thus  said,  she  turned  herself  back,  and 
saw  Jesus  standing ;  and  she  knew  not  that  it  was 
Jesus.  Jesus  saith  to  her :  Woman,  why  weepest 
thou  ?  whom  seekest  thou  ?  She  thinking  that  it  was 
the  gardener,  saith  to  him :  Sir,  if  thou  hast  taken 
Him  hence,  tell  me  where  thou  hast  laid  Him  :  and  I 
will  take  Him  away.  Jesus  saith  to  her  :  Mary.  She 
turning,  saith  to  Him  :  Rabboni  (which  is  to  say, 
Master).  Jesus  saith  to  her:  Do  not  touch  Me,  for 
I  am  not  yet  ascended  to  My  Father  :  but  go  to  My 
brethren,  and  say  to  them  :  I  ascend  to  My  Father 
and  to  your  Father,  to  My  God  and  your  God." 

Thus  did  Jesus  appear  to  her  * '  out  of  whom  He 
had  cast  seven  devils." 

"The  glorious  lover  Magdalene,"  says  St.  Francis 
de  Sales  (Love  of  God,  Book  V.  chap,  vii.),  "met 
the  angels  at  the  sepulchre,  who  doubtless  spoke  to 
her  angelically, .that  is  most  sweetly,  but  she,  on  the 
contrary,  wholly  rueful,  could  take  no  content,  either 
in  their  sweet  words  or  in  the  glory  of  their  garments, 
or  in  the  all- heavenly  grace  of  their  deportment,  or 
in  the  most  delightsome  beauty  of  their  faces,  but  all 
steeped  in  tears:  'They  have  taken  away  my  I^ord,' 
says  she,  '  and  I  know  not  where  they  have  laid 
Him ' :  and  turning  about,  she  saw  her  sweet  Saviour, 
but  in  form  of  a  gardener,  with  whom  her  heart  can- 
not be  satisfied,  for  full  of  the  love  of  the  death 
of  her  Master,  flowers  she  will  have  none,  nor  con- 


732 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


RABBONI ! 


sequently  gardeners ;    she  has  within    her  heart    the 
cross,  the  nails,  the  thorns  ;  she  seeks  her  Crucified." 

In  fulfilment  of  our  L,ord's  command  she  again  be- 
comes a  messenger  of  His  resurrection,  this  time  to  the 
nine  Apostles,  following  fast  upon  the  announcement 
of  the  other  women.  ' '  She  went  and  told  them  that 
had  been  with  Him,  who  were  mourning  and  weeping ; 
and  [she]  telleth  the  disciples  :  I  have  seen  the  L,ord, 
and  these  things  He  said  to  me."  But  they  were  as 
yet  too  hopelessly  sunk  in  gloom  and  in  doubt  to  credit 
her,  ' '  and  they  hearing  that  He  was  alive,  and  had 

been  seen  by  her,  did  not  believe." 

Thus  did  our  Risen  Saviour  honor  in  the  person 
of  Mary  Magdalene  that  supremely  needful  virtue, 
penance  for  sin,  a  virtue  of  which  she  is  the  fore- 
most exponent ;  a  woman  who  had  been  a  harlot,  who 
had  been  possessed  of  seven  devils,  but  who  had 
lovingly  sorrowed  and  been  most  affectionately  for- 
given and  reconciled. 

"Mary,"  said  Jesus  to  her.  It  was  but  a  single 
word,  but  in  speaking  it  He  brought  back  to  His 
voice  a  familiar  tone  and  with  it  a  revelation  of 
His  own  beloved  self.  Was  ever  such  surprise  as 
Magdalene's,  such  ecstasy  of  joy?  "  Rabboni !  My 
Master!"  she  exclaimed,  and  fell  at  His  feet  to  kiss 
them.  But  Jesus  withdrew  His  feet  from  her,  say- 
ing:  "Do  not  touch  Me,  for  I  am  not  yet  ascended 
to  My  Father."  These  are  mysterious  words. 

Our  Saviour  meant,  according  to  St.  I/eo,  as 
quoted  in  the  Divine  office  during  the  octave  of  the 
Ascension,  that  not  by  the  carnal  hand  but  by  the 
spiritual  intelligence  should  the  only  begotten  Son, 
equal  of  the  Father,  be  touched  after  the  resurrection. 
"  When  the  Lord  said  to  Mary  Magdalene,  Touch 
Me  not,  for  I  am  not  yet  ascended  to  My  Father,  He 


JESUS  APPEARS  TO  THE  HOLY  WOMEN.  733 

meant  this  :  I  do  not  wish  that  thou  shouldst  come 
to  Me  in  a  bodily  way,  nor  that  thou  shouldst  know 
Me  by  the  fleshly  senses ;  I  postpone  thee  to  things 
more  sublime,  I  prepare  thee  for  greater  things. 
When  I  shall  have  ascended  to  the  Father,  then  thou 
shalt  touch  Me  more  perfectly  and  more  truly,  laying 
hold  on  what  thou  dost  not  touch,  and  believing  what 
thou  dost  not  behold."  • 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  APPARITION  OF  JESUS  TO  THE  HOLY  WOMEN. — 
HOW  THE  CHIEF  PRIESTS  EXPLAINED  THE  K  INSUR- 
RECTION. 

Matt,  xxviii.  9—15  ;  Luke  xxiv.  i—ii. 

WE  have  seen  that  when  Mary  Magdalene  started 
to  find  Peter  and  John,  her  two  companions,  Mary 
mother  of  James  and  Salome,  had  likewise  started 
to  find  the  other  Apostles,  to  tell  them  that  the  body 
of  Jesus  had  disappeared  from  the  sepulchre.  Mean- 
time (according  to  what  seems  to  us  the  most  probable 
explanation)  another  party  of  the  holy  women  had  ar- 
rived near  the  garden,  having  come  from  their  tarry- 
ing place  in  the  city  with  the  same  object  of  anointing 
the  body  of  Jesus.  Mary  the  mother  of  James  and 
Salome  met  them,  announced  the  startling  news  of 
the  absence  of  the  body,  and  then  were  induced  to 
turn  back  with  them  to  the  sepulchre.  When  all 
had  seen  that  the  place  where  the  body  had  lain 
was  empty,  they  were  suddenly  aware  of  the  pres- 
ence of  two  wonderful  angels,  whose  apparition  to 
them  we  have  already  related. 

' '  And  they  went  out  quickly  from  the  sepulchre 
with  fear  and  great  joy,  running  to  tell  the  disciples." 
Thus  hastening  onward  to  deliver  the  angelic  mes- 


734  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

sage,  suddenly  a  bright  flash  of  light,  outshining  the 
morning  sun,  showed  them  Jesus  Himself,  all  glori- 
ous and  triumphant,  standing  before  them  on  the  road. 
"  And  behold  Jesus  met  them,  saying  :  All  hail.  But 
they  came  up,  and  took  hold  of  His  feet  and  adored 
Him."  He  repeated  the  message  of  the  angels  with 
the  addition  of  giving  His  disciples  a  rendezvous  in 
Galilee.  "Then  Jesus  said  to  them:  Fear  not.  Go, 
tell  My  brethren  that  they  go  into  Galilee,  there  they 
shall  see  Me."  And  so  He  vanished  quickly  away. 

The  Evangelist  then  makes  a  statement  in  general 
terms  of  the  different  announcements  of  all  the  women 
to  the  Apostles :  ' '  And  going  back  from  the  sepulchre, 
they  told  all  these  things  to  the  eleven,  and  to  all 
the  rest.  And  it  was  Mary  Magdalene,  and  Joanna, 
and  Mary  of  James,  and  the  other  women  that  were 
with  them,  who  told  these  things  to  the  Apostles." 
Peter  and  John,  as  we  have  seen,  were  already  fully 
persuaded  of  the  resurrection;  as  to  the  other  nine, 
"these  words  seemed  to  them  as  idle  tales:  and  they 
did  not  believe  them." 

Thus  the  sacred  narrative  tells  of  Jesus'  seconck, 
apparition,  and  it  is  to  the  holy  women,  as  His  first 
recorded  appearance  is  to  Magdalene.  Why  did  Je- 
sus, we  may  reverently  ask,  thus  favor  the  female 
members  of  His  discipleship  ?  We  answer  that  it 
may  have  been  to  reward  and  thereby  to  dignify  the 
divine  virtue  of  faith,  "the  root  and  foundation  of 
all  righteousness."  For  this  virtue  has  always  been  a 
characteristic  trait  of  the  female  sex  among  Chris- 
tians, standing  guard  in  their  persons  over  the  treasure 
of  truth  in  the  family,  in  the  school-room,  and,  par- 
ticularly in  recent  times,  extending  its  direct,  vigor- 
ous, and  enlightening  influence  far  into  the  whole 
region  of  human  society. 


THE  CHIEF  PRIESTS  AND  THE  RESURRECTION.  735 

The  sacred  chronicle  takes  final  leave  of  the  tomb, 
the  garden,  the  soldiers,  and  the  conspirators  in 
telling  of  the  frantic  expedient  of  the  chief  priests  to 
account  for  the  resurrection.  They  affirm  to  Pilate 
that  the  body  has  been  stolen  by  the  disciples,  and 
they  would  prove  it  by  the  testimony  of  men  who 
confess  that  they  were  asleep  when  it  happened ! 
It  would  seem  that  some  of  the  soldiers,  after  re- 
covering from  their  panic,  lay  concealed  near  the 
sepulchre,  and  when  all  the  events  of  the  morning 
were  over  reported  what  had  taken  place,  doing  so 
to  the  chief  priests,  to  whom  Pilate  had  given  them 
as  a  guard.  "  Who  when  they  were  departed,  behold 
some  of  the  guards  came  into  the  city,  and  told  the 
chief  priests  all  things  that  had  been  done.  And 
they  being  assembled  together  with  the  ancients,  tak- 
ing counsel,  gave  a  great  sum  of  money  to  the  sol- 
diers, saying:  Say  you,  His  disciples  came  by  night, 
and  stole  Him  away  when  we  were  asleep.  And  if 
the  governor  shall  hear  of  this,  we  will  persuade  him, 
and  secure  you.  So  they  taking  the  money,  did  as 
they  were  taught:  and  this  word  was  spread  abroad 
among  the  Jews  even  unto  this  day." 


736 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

JESUS    APPEARS    TO    PETER,'    AND   TO    TWO     DISCIPLES 
ON  THE   ROAD   TO   EMMAUS. 

Mark  xvi.  12,  13  ;  Luke  xxiv.  13-35  >'  I-   Cor.  xv.  5-7. 

ETER  and  John  came  to   the  sepulchre   of  Jesus  to- 
gether, as  they   had  been  together  when  He  prayed 
in  the  garden  of  olives,  when  Peter  denied  Him,  when 
He  was  transfigured,  and  when  He  raised  the  daugh- 
ter of  Jairus  to  life.     But  Jesus  appeared  separately 
to   Peter  that  day,  just  where   and   at  what  precise 
hour  we  know  not,  as  the  revelation  of  this  event  is 
but  the  brief  word  of  St.  Paul  in  his  first  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians,  "He  was  seen  by  Cephas,"   and  the 
announcement  of  the  Apostles  to  the  disciples  coming 
from    Emmaus,    "The   L,ord    hath   risen   indeed   and 
hath   appeared   to   Simon."      This   makes    it    certain 
that  the   apparition   to   Peter  preceded   that   to   Cleo- 
phas  and   his  companion,    for  they  got   the  news  of 
it  from    the    eleven    (Peter    himself    being    therefore 
present)  in  exchange  for  the   narrative  of  their  ad- 
venture with  the  Saviour  on  the  road  to  Emmaus. 

It  was  a  touching  act  of  love  on  the  part  of  Jesus 
thus  to  honor  Peter.  As  the  penitent  woman  was  the 
first  in  all  His  fellowship  to  receive  His  greeting,  so 
among  His  chosen  ones,  His  Apostles,  the  penitent 
Peter,  who  had  been  so  weak  and  so  guilty  in  the 
hour  of  trial  but  had  wept  so  bitterly  in  his  peni- 
tence, was  chosen  out  of  all  the  Apostles  to  first  be- 
hold the  Risen  L,ord.  We  may  not  doubt  that  our 
Saviour's  purpose  in  this  was  not  only  to  honor  the 
primacy  but  also  to  assure  Peter  of  perfect  forgive- 
ness. 

Emmaus  is  identified  by  an  immemorial  Christian 


HE  APPEARS  NEAR  EMMAUS. 

tradition  with  a  village  some  seven 
or  eight  miles  west  of  Jerusalem. 
Doubtless  it  was  one  of  the  places 
of  refuge  and  rendezvous  agreed 
upon  by  the  disciples  of  the  Lord 
during  their  terror  at  His  death,  be- 
ing all  the  safer  because  so  insig- 
nificant in  size.  But  the  vision  of 
Jesus  to  two  of  His  disciples  on  the 
road  between  Emmaus  and  the  city 
has  given  this  little  hamlet  a  holy 
celebrity.  St.  Luke's  account  of 
this  most  instructive  episode  is  very 
full,  but  St.  Mark  mentions  it :  "Af- 
ter that  He  appeared  in  another 
shape  to  two  of  them,  as  they  were 
going  into  the  country." 

The  account  of  our  Saviour's  join- 
ing with  the  two  disciples  as  they 
journeyed  sadly  on,  His  introducing 
Himself  as  a  wayfarer  like  them- 
selves, and  the  conversation  and  in- 
cidents which  followed,  ending  with 
the  revelation  of  His  identity,  is  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  narratives  in 
all  revelation,  bringing  out  His  pa- 
tience with  His  simple  followers  as 
well  as  their  own  crude  notions 
about  His  mission.  He  found  their 
disappointment  at  His  failure  and 
their  horror  at  His  death  to  be  over- 
whelming. ' '  We  hoped , "  they  com- 
plained, "  that  it  was  He  who  should 
have  redeemed  Israel."  Nor  had 
the  reports  brought  by  the  holy 

737 


And  behold,  two  of  them  went  the  same 
day  to  a  town  which  was  sixty  furlongs 
from  Jerusalem,  named  Emmaus.  And 
they  talked  together  of  all  these  thing' 
which  had  happened.  And  it  came  to  pass 
that  while  they  talked  and  reasoned  will 
themselves,  Jesus  himself  also  drawing 
near  went  with  them.  But  their  eyes  wen 
held  that  they  should  not  know  him.  Anc 
he  said  to  them :  What  are  these  dis 
courses  that  you  hold  one  with  another  a; 
you  walk,  and  are  sad  ?  And  the  one  o: 
them,  whose  name  was  Cleophas,  answer 
ing,  said  to  him  :  Art  thou  only  a  strange; 
in  Jerusalem,  and  hast  not  known  th< 
things  that  have  been  done  there  in  thes< 
days  ?  To  whom  he  said  :  What  things 
And  they  said  :  Concerning  Jesus  of  Naza 
reth,  who  was  a  prophet  mighty  in  worl 
and  word,  before  God  and  all  the  people 
And  how  our  chief  priests  and  princes  de 
livered  him  to  be  condemned  to  death,  anc 
crucified  him.  But  we  hoped  that  it  wa; 
he  that  should  have  redeemed  Israel :  anc 
now  besides  all  this,  to-day  is  the  third  da^ 
since  these  things  were  done.  Yea,  anc 
certain  women  also  of  our  company  af 
frighted  us,  who  before  it  was  light  were  a 
the  sepulchre.  And  not  finding  his  body 
came,  saying  that  they  had  also  seen  * 
vision  of  angels,  who  say  that  he  is  alive 
And  some  of  our  people  went  to  th< 
sepulchre  :  and  found  it  so  as  the  womei 
had  said,  but  him  they  found  not.  Thei 
he  said  to  them :  O  foolish,  and  slow  o 
heart  to  believe  in  all  things  which  thi 
prophets  have  spoken.  Ought  not  Chris 
to  have  suffered  these  things,  and  so  t< 
enter  into  his  glory  ?  And  beginning  a 
Moses  and  all  the  prophets,  he  expoundec 
to  them  in  all  the  scriptures  the  things  tha 
were  concerning  him.  And  they  drew  nig] 
to  the  town  whither  they  were  going  :  an< 
he  made  as  though  he  would  go  farther 
But  they  constrained  him,  saying :  Sta; 
with  us,  because  it  is  towards  evening,  an< 
the  day  is  now  far  spent.  And  he  went  ii 
with  them.  And  it  came  to  pass,  whilst  h 
was  at  table  with  them,  he  took  bread,  an< 
blessed  and  brake,  and  gave  to  them 
And  their  eyes  were  opened,  and  the 
knew  him  :  and  he  vanished  out  of  thei 
sight.  And  they  said  one  to  the  other 
Was  not  our  heart  burning  within  us 
whilst  he  spoke  in  the  way,  and  opened  t< 
us  the  scriptures  ?  And  rising  up  th 
same  hour  they  went  back  to  Jerusalem 
and  they  found  the  eleven  gathered  to 
gether,  and  those  that  were  with  them 
saying :  The  Lord  is  risen  indeed,  an< 
hath  appeared  to  Simon.  And  they  tol< 
what  things  were  done  in  the  way  :  and  ho\ 
they  knew  him  in  the  breaking  of  bread. 


738 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


"  He  made  as  though  He  would 
go  farther." 


women  of  the  disappearance  of  the  Sa- 
viour's body,  nor  their  "vision  of  an- 
gels," nor  even  the  reports  of  Peter 
and  John,  been  able  to  console  them ; 
they  were  but  the  more  amazed  and 
affrighted.  Yet  faith  was  not  entirely 
dead  in  them — ' '  He  was  a  prophet 
mighty  in  work  and  word,"  but  still 
the  chief  priests  had  delivered  Him  to 
crucifixion,  His  cause  was  lost  and  their 
hearts  were  sunk  in  despair. 

Jesus  soon  made  those  slow  and  fool- 
ish hearts  burn  with  hope  and  love  as 
He  explained  the  Scriptures,  beginning 
with  Moses  and  going  through  the  pro- 
phets, proving  to  them  that  the  Redeemer  was  destined 
to  be  slain  for  His  people  and  then  to  rise  from  the 
dead.     This  absorbing  conversation  gradually  instilled 
into  their  souls  a  realization  of  the  Resurrection,  and 
was  continued  till  they  had  constrained  Jesus  to  share 
their  evening  meal.     As  this  ended  the  Saviour  dis- 
closed His  glory   to  them.     He  did  so   in  the  act  of 
breaking  the  Bread  of  the  Eucharist  to  them,  as  many 
consider  this  to  mean.     But  the  very  moment  they  knew 
Him  and  adored  Him  He  vanished  out  of  their  sight. 
When  the  two  disciples  found  themselves  suddenly 
alone,  their  Master,  known  at  last  "in 
the    breaking    of   bread,"    gone    from 
them,  gone  as  soon  as  known,  they  re- 
proached themselves  that  they  had  not 
recognized  Him  before  by  His  burning 
words.     The  disciples'  "  eyes  were  held 
that  they  should  not  know  Him,"  but 
the  voice  of  a  lover  is  not  as  easily  dis- 
TWITHAPITIQNALSITEOFEMMAUS.      Seised  as  his  appearance.     How  the 


THE  FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS.  739 

words  of  Jesus  had  vibrated  in  their  hearts ! — a  voice 
indeed  from  the  tomb,  had  they  but  recognized  it,  but  a 
living  voice  from  a  tomb  erected  into  a  throne.  It  is  a 
curious  illustration  of  the  slowness  of  belief  of  the 
Apostles,  that  although  they  believed  that  the  Lord 
had  appeared  to  Peter,  yet,  as  St.  Mark  tells  us,  they 
rejected  the  apparition  on  the  road  to  Bmmaus.  For 
when  the  two  disciples  "going  told  it  to  the  rest, 
neither  did  they  believe  them."  Yet  these  witnesses 
were  fresh  from  their  interview  with  the  Lord,  having 
turned  back  qaickly  and  hastened  into  the  city  with 
their  news.  But  a  still  more  amazing  apparition  was 
to  be  given  to  all  the  Apostles  (except  Thomas)  later 
on  that  same  night,  coupled  with  the  Apostolic  power 
of  pardoning  sin. 


CHAPTER  V. 

WHOSE  SINS  YOU  SHAI,!,  FORGIVE,  THEY  ARE  FOR- 
GIVEN THEM." — THE  PROFESSION  OF  FAITH  BY 
THOMAS. 

Luke  xxiv.  36-4.3  ;  fohn  xx.  19-31. 

'N  the  opening  sentences  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  St.  Luke  speaks  of  Jesus  as 
"  for  forty  days  appearing  to  the  Apostles, 
and  speaking  to  them  of  the  kingdom  of 
God";  that  is  to  say,  His  visible  king- 
dom, His  Church.  Some  of  the  most  im- 
portant doctrines  and  institutions  of  His  religion  were 
the  subjects  of  His  discourses,  which  doubtless  in  tone 
and  feeling  were  most  joyous,  as  in  substance  they  were 
marvellously  important.  It  is  all  given  with  the  gentle 
power  of  their  beloved  Teacher  of  Galilee,  but  in 
addition  there  is  a  gladness  in  His  looks,  a  triumph 


740 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


in  His  voice  unknown  before  the  Resurrection.  This 
gladness  and  this  triumph  He  imparts  to  the  very 
important  teaching  which  accompanied  His  first  ap- 
parition to  the  assembled  Apostles. 

He  began  by  the  salutation  "  Peace  be  to  you." 
And  if  ever  men  have  known  peace,  calm,  assured 
peace  transcending  words  to  express,  it  is  after  they 
have  been  forgiven  their  sins  by  the  Sacrament  of 
Penance.  Jesus  soothed  the  troubled  minds  of  His 
followers  as  a  preparation  for  receiving  their  ordina- 
tion for  this  sacrament,  and  a  share  of  His  own  power 
of  pardoning  sin.  They,  at  least  some  of  them, 
thought  He  was  but  a  fearful  vision,  and  therefore 
He  showed  them  His  hands  and  feet,  He  spoke  again 
and  again  to  them,  He  ate  and  drank  with  them;  in 
every  way  He  would  restore  as  far  as 
possible  their  old-time  feeling  of  fa- 
miliar affection.  Now,  and  after- 
wards in  all  His  dealings  with  them, 
He  would  banish  fear,  and  say,  as 
He  did  to  St.  John  in  the  Apocalypse 
(i.  17,  18),  "Fear  not.  I  am  the 
first,  and  the  last,  and  alive,  and  was 
dead,  and  behold  I  am  living  for  ever 
and  ever,  and  have  the  keys  of  death 
and  hell."  And,  indeed,  when  the 
soul  of  Jesus  resumed  its  bleeding 
and  broken  corpse  and  made  it  alive, 
it  was  as  if  God  had  breathed  a  new 
spirit  into  all  human  flesh,  the  spirit 
of  pardon  and  peace.  Hence  it  was 
after  His  Resurrection,  that  great 
inbreathing  of  new  life,  that  Jesus 
chose  to  institute  His  sacrament  of 
peace,  and  to  breathe  upon  repen- 


Now  whilst  they  were  speaking  these 
things,  when  it  was  late,  that  same  day, 
being  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  the 
doors  were  shut  where  the  disciples  were 
gathered  together  for  fear  of  the  Jews  : 
Jesus  came  and  stood  in  the  midst,  and 
said  to  them  :  Peace  be  to  you  ;  it  is  I, 
fear  not.  But  they  being  troubled  and 
affrighted,  supposed  that  they  saw  a  spirit. 
And  he  said  to  them :  Why  are  you 
troubled,  and  why  do  thoughts  arise  in  your 
hearts  ?  See  my  hands  and  my  feet,  that 
it  is  I  myself  ;  handle  and  see,  for  a  spirit 
hath  not  flesh  and  bones,  as  you  see  me  to 
have.  And  when  he  had  said  this  he  showed 
them  his  hands  and  his  feet  and  his  side. 
But  while  they  yet  believed  not  but  wonder- 
ed for  joy,  he  said  :  Have  you  here  anything 
to  eat  ?  And  they  offered  him  a  piece  of 
broiled  fish  and  a  honey-comb.  And  when 
he  had  eaten  before  them,  taking  the  re- 
mains he  gave  to  them.  The  disciples  there- 
fore were  glad  when  they  saw  the  Lord.  He 
said  therefore  to  them  again  :  Peace  be  to 
you.  As  the  Father  hath  sent  me,  I  also 
send  you.  When  he  had  said  this  he 
breathed  on  them  ;  and  he  said  to  them  : 
Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost  ;  whose  sins 
you  shall  forgive,  they  are  forgiven  them ; 
and  whose  sins  you  shall  retain,  they  are 
retained. 


PROFESSION  OF  FAITH  BY  THOMAS. 


741 


tant   siuners   the    Holy    Spirit   for   the    forgiveness  of 
their  sins. 

Of  all  the  uses  of  Christ's  sacred  Brotherhood 
among  men  none  can  equal  that  of  pardoning  sin,  an 
office  which  endows  human  friendship  with  a  divine 
prerogative.  His  introductory  words,  "Peace  be  to 
you,"  foreshow  His  gift  of  tranquillity  of  soul  in 
pardon  and  reconciliation  ;  His  breathing  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the  Apostles  assures 
both  the  penitent  and  the  Apostle  of  the 
divinity  of  the  act  performed ;  the  alternative 
of  sin  to  be  pardoned  or  sin  to  be  retained 
demands  as  a  necessary  preliminary  of  pardon 
the  holy  but  painful  confession  of  sin  and  the 
explicit  proof  of  sorrow :  all  preceded  by  the 
sublime  authentication  :  "As  the  Father  hath 
sent  Me,  I  also  send  you." 

Thus  Christ  instituted  that  external  rite 
which  combines  sorrow  for  sin  and  confession 
and  absolution,  and  is  called  the  Sacrament 
of  Penance.  It  is  the  drawing  of  the  peni- 
tent soul  into  a  brother's  counsel  and  admonition ; 
and  especially  into  the  pardon  of  a  compassionate 
Father  administered  by  the  ambassador  of  Christ. 
Unless  the  Apostleship  had  thus  been  made  what  St. 
Paul  terms  a  "  ministry  of  reconciliation,"  the  main 
purpose  for  which  the  Son  of  God  had  been  sent 
by  His  Father  would  have  sadly  halted  in  its  fulfil- 
ment. 

The  next  appearance  of  Jesus  which  is  recorded 
happened  a  week  afterwards,  and  was  given  to  all 
the  disciples.  It  was 'for  the  sake  of  the  holy  virtue 
of  Christian  faith,  which  had  been  wounded  by 
Thomas.  He  was  but  an  exaggerated  specimen  of 
the  unreasonable  incredulity  of  all  the  Apostles,  but 


'  My  Lord,  and  my  God." 


742 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


Now  Tnomas,  one  of  the  twelve,  who  is 
called  Didymus,  was  not  with  them  when 
Jesus  came.  The  other  disciples  therefore 
said  to  him  :  We  have  seen  the  Lord.  But 
he  said  to  them  :  Except  I  shall  see  in  his 
hands  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  put  my 
finger  into  the  place  of  the  nails,  and  put 
my  hand  into  his  side,  I  will  not  believe. 
And  after  eight  days,  again  his  disciples 
were  within,  and  Thomas  with  them.  Jesus 
cometh,  the  doors  being  shut,  and  stood  in 
the  midst,  and  said  :  Peace  be  to  you. 
Then  he  saith  to  Thomas :  Put  in  thy 
finger  hither,  and  see  my  hands,  and  bring 
hither  thy  hand  and  put  it  into  my  side ; 
and  be  not  faithless,  but  believing.  Thomas 
answered,  and  said  to  him  :  My  Lord,  and 
my  God.  Jesus  saith  to  him :  Because 
thou  hast  seen  me,  Thomas,  thou  hast  be- 
lieved :  blessed  are  they  that  have  not 
seen,  and  have  believed. 


his  sin  of  unbelief  was  so  conspicu- 
ous that  Jesus  made  of  it  an  occa- 
sion (in  His  usual  loving  way)  of 
public  admonition  to  him  and  of  in- 
struction to  all.  He  elicited  from 
Thomas's  obstinate  heart  a  profes- 
sion of  faith  in  terms  most  emphatic 
and  plainly  affirmative  of  His  divin- 
ity. He  grants  the  doubter  all  the 
conditions  of  physical  sight  and 
touch  he  had  insisted  on  in  his  dis- 
pute with  his  brethren ;  but  poor 
Thomas  is  overwhelmed  with  re- 
morse and  flooded  with  an  overpow- 
ering sense  of  faith.  "My  L,ord  and  my  God!"  he 
exclaims.  He  is  the  first  of  a  long  line  of  mighty 
believers  who,  like  St.  Augustine,  fight  hard  in  the 
beginning  for  the  pretensions  of  reason,  only  in  the 
end  to  yield  the  more  absolutely  to  the  prerogatives 
of  faith.* 

The  Master,  we  must  carefully  notice,  rebuked 
the  doubting  Apostle  very  severely,  and  yet  did  not 
rebuke  the  cowardly  one  after  his  denial.  Coward- 
ice is  a  detestable  vice,  and  in  Peter's  case  the  offence 
was  an  aggravated  one.  But  hardness  and  slowness 
of  belief  is  a  form  of  pride  hateful  to  God  and  man, 

*  Immediately  following  this  evidence  of  Christ's  divinity,  St.  John 
adds  the  following  words  :  "  Many  other  signs  also  did  Jesus  in  the  sight 
of  His  disciples,  which  are  not  written  in  this  book.  But  these  are 
written  that  you  may  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  the  Son  of  God  ;  and 
that  believing  you  may  have  life  in  His  name."  This  sounds  as  if  intended 
to  be  the  closing  sentence  of  the  Gospel  of  St  John,  which  nevertheless 
has  another  chapter.  Much  controversy  has  taken  place  over  this,  which 
we  may  leave  to  learned  critics,  contenting  ourselves  with  the  undoubted 
certainty  of  the  authenticity  of  the  last  chapter,  which  may  have  been 
added  to  his  work  by  its  author  some  time  after  its  original  composi- 
tion. 


JESUS  APPEARS  TO  SEVEN  APOSTLES.  743 

and  contempt  for  the  testimony  of  brethren  is  ominous 
of  the  loss  of  faith,  a  calamity  involving  every  other 
loss.  Even  a  guiltless  natural  tendency  to  scepti- 
cism is  a  misfortune  of  the  worst  kind,  and  wilful 
doubt  in  religious  matters  is  an  unspeakable  crime. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

JESUS  APPEARS  TO  SEVEN  APOSTLES  AT  THE    SEA    OF 
TIBERIAS. — THE   PRIMACY  OF   PETER. 

Matt,  xxviii.  16  ;  John  xxi.  1-25. 

T  is  evident  that  the  Apostles  were,  much  of  the 
time,  left  by  Jesus  at  their  own  disposal,  either 
in  quiet  waiting  for  the  L,ord,  or  engaged  in  their 
ordinary  occupation  of  humble  fishermen.  Jesus 
appeared  to  them  at  short  intervals,  enlighten- 
ing their  faith  by  His  instructions,  and  sinking 
deeper  and  deeper  into  their  souls  the  wonder 
and  awe  and  thanksgiving  of  His  resurrection.  "After 
this  Jesus  showed  Himself  again  to  the  disciples  at  the 
sea  of  Tiberias.  And  He  showed  Himself  after  this 
manner.  There  were  together  Simon  Peter,  and 
Thomas  who  is  called  Didymus,  and  Nathanael  who 
was  of  Cana  in  Galilee,  and  the  sons  of  Zebedee,  and 
two  others  of  his  disciples.  Simon  Peter  saith  to  them  : 
I  go  a  fishing.  They  say  to  him  :  We  also  come  with 
thee.  And  they  went  forth  and  entered  into  the  ship  : 
and  that  night  they  caught  nothing.  But  when  the 
morning  was  come,  Jesus  stood  on  the  shore :  yet  the 
disciples  knew  not  that  it  was  Jesus.  Jesus  therefore 
said  to  them:  Children,  have  you  any  meat?  They 
answered  Him  :  No.  He  saith  to  them  :  Cast  the  net 
on  the  right  side  of  the  ship ;  and  you  shall  find. 
They  cast  therefore :  and  now  they  were  not  able  to 


744 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


? 


draw  it  for  the  multitude  of  fishes.  That  disciple 
therefore  whom  Jesus  loved,  said  to  Peter  :  It  is  the 
Lord.  Simon  Peter,  when  he  heard,  that  it  was  the 
Lord,  girt  his  coat  about  him  (for  he  was  naked) 
and  cast  himself  into  the  sea.  But  the  other  dis- 
ciples came  in  the  ship  (for  they  were  not  far  from 
the  land,  but  as  it  were  two  hundred  cubits)  dragging 
the  net  with  fishes.  As  soon  then  as  they  came  to 
land,  they  saw  hot  coals  lying,  and  a  fish  laid  there- 
s^v»^  on^  an(j  kread.  Jesus  saith  to  them  :  Bring  hither  of 
£$  '•%  the  fishes  which  you  have  now  caught.  Simon  Pe- 
ter went  up,  and  drew  the  net  to  land,  full  of 
great  fishes,  one  hundred  fifty-three.  And  although 
there  were  so  many,  the  net  was  not  broken.  Jesus 
saith  to  them  :  Come,  and  dine.  And  none  of  them 
who  were  at  meat,  durst  ask  Him  :  Who  art  Thou  ? 
knowing  that  it  was  the  Lord.  And  Jesus  cometh  and 
l^-=^'^^>  taketh  bread,  and  giveth  them,  and  fish  in  like  man- 
ner. This  is  now  the  third  time  that  Jesus  was 
manifested  to  His  disciples,  after  He  was  risen  from 
the  dead." 

John,  it  is  perceived,  was  the  first  to  recognize 
Jesus  when  He  appeared  in  the  dawning  sunlight. 
This  ,  was  by  virtue  of  love's  quick  instinct.  But 
none  of  those  timid  hearts  dared  address  Him,  though 
He  had  addressed  them  with  the  familiar  term  "chil- 
dren." Then,  when  they  had  grown  more  familiarized 
to  His  presence  and  when  they  had  eaten  their  simple 
meal  of  bread  and  fish,  the  Saviour  undertook  the 
purpose  He  had  in  view  in  this  apparition,  that  is 
to  say,  the  appointment,  now  for  the  third  time,  of 
Peter  to  be  the  chief  pastor  of  His  Church. 

That  Apostle's  heart  must  have  quaked  within 
him  when  Jesus  began  solemnly,  "  Simon,  son  of 
John,  lovest  thou  Me?"  for  he  might  have  expected 


THE  PRIMACY  OF  PETER 


745 


When,  therefore,  they  had  dined,  Jesu 
said  to  Simon  Peter  :  Simon  son  of  John 
lovest  thou  me  more  than  these  ?  He  sau 
to  him :  Yea,  Lord,  thou  knowest  that 
love  thee.  He  said  to  him:  Feed  m; 
lambs.  He  said  to  him  again:  Simoi 
son  of  John,  lovest  thou  me  ?  He  said  t< 
him  :  Yea,  Lord,  thou  knowest  that  I  lov< 
thee.  He  said  to  him  :  Feed  my  lambs 
He  said  to  him  the  third  time  :  Simon  soi 
of  John,  lovest  thou  me  ?  Peter  wa 
grieved,  because  he  had  said  to  him  th< 
third  time,  Lovest  thou  me  ?  And  he  sai( 
to  him:  Lord,  thou  knowest  all  things 
thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee.  He  said  t< 
him:  Feed  my  sheep.  Amen,  amen,  1  sa} 
to  thee  :  when  thou  wast  younger,  thoi 
didst  gird  thyself,  and  didst  walk  when 
thou  wouldst.  But  when  thou  shalt  be  old 
thou  shalt  stretch  forth  thy  hands,  and  an 
other  shall  gird  thee,  and  lead  thee  whithe 
thou  wouldst  not.  And  this  he  said,  sig 
nifying  by  what  death  he  should  glorif; 
God. 


a  public  reproach  from  his  Master 
for  his  three-fold  denial  of  Him. 
No,  it  was  not  reproach  ;  it  was  the 
bestowal  of  additional  honor  that  the 
Master  meant  to  introduce  by  His 
question.  He  gave  Peter  three 
happy  opportunities  to  openly  pro- 
claim his  love,  the  only  public  atone- 
ment ever  made  or  ever  asked  for 
his  three  miserable  denials  ;  and  af- 
ter each  profession  of  love  He  charges 
him  with  the  shepherd's  office  over 
His  entire  flock  of  sheep  and  lambs. 

Peter  proves  his  humility  by  the 
unboastful  tone  of  his  answers. 
Once  he  had  shown  contempt  for  his 
brethren :  ' '  Although  all  shall  be  scandalized  in 
Thee,  yet  not  I";  and  afterwards  he  fell  far  below 
all  of  them  except  Judas.  Now,  not  even  the  L/ord 
Himself  shall  force  him  to  so  much  as  compare  his 
loyalty  with  that  of  his  brother  Apostles ;  much  less 
will  he  claim  a  love  for  Jesus  greater  than  theirs, 
though  the  L,ord  plainly  presumes  him  to  possess  it. 
Yet  true  love  he  eagerly  does  claim,  and  appeals  to 
the  Saviour  Himself,  who  is  reading  his  heart :  "  Thou 
knowest  that  I  love  Thee."  And  this  is  repeated 
thrice,  the  third  time  being  most  emphatic,  for 
' '  Peter  was  grieved  because  He  said  to  him  the  third 
time:  L/ovest  thou  Me?  And  he  said  to  Him:  Lord, 
Thou  knowest  all  things  ;  Thou  knowest  that  I  love 
Thee." 

Of  course  the  commandment  to  feed  the  lambs  and 
:he  sheep  of  Christ  means  the  bestowal  of  the  office 
of  shepherd,  to  lead  the  sheep  in  and  out,  to  find 
them  pasture,  to  guard  them  against  wolves,  to  live 


746  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

and  die  for  them  (John  x.);  in  a  word,  to  rule 
and  to  teach  the  Christian  Church.  Peter  is  given 
the  same  rights  over  the  Christian  people  that  the 
shepherd  has  over  the  sheep  and  lambs  of  the  flock. 
In  the  work  of  teaching,  of  enlightening  men's  souls 
with  the  truth  of  Christ,  and  in  that  of  nourishing 
them  with  all  the  means  of  grace  and  virtue  ordained 
for  their  eternal  welfare,  Peter  was  invested  with  the 
chief  office  among  the  Apostles.  The  unfailing  truth 
of  Peter,  the  inalienable  and  paramount  authority  of 
Peter  and  of  Peter's  office,  were  thus  established, 
forming  the  headship  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  This 
primacy  was  fitly  introduced  by  a  triple  profession  of 
love  for  Jesus  on  the  part  of  its  recipient,  for  it  is 
essentially  a  primacy  of  love. 

No  institution  of  Christ  is  rooted  deeper  in  His 
Church  than  the  supremacy  of  Peter  and  his  infallible 
teaching  authority.  Besides  his  appointment  on  this 
occasion  as  chief  shepherd,  he  had  already  been  made 
the  bearer  of  the  keys  of  Christ's  visible  kingdom, 
and  the  immovable  foundation  of  the  Church  as  well 
as  its  impregnable  rampart  against  the  gates  of  hell. 
He  had  been  appointed,  moreover,  the  confirmer  of 
his  brethren.  Besides  these  three  distinct  investitures 
of  office,  all  of  them  being  in  addition  to  the  ordinary 
Apostolic  dignity,  Peter  is  in  many  ways  preferred 
before  his  brethren.  He  is  named  first  in  St.  Mat- 
thew's list  of  the  Apostles,  in  St.  lyuke's  in  the  Acts ; 
he  was  selected  first  by  the  Master  at  His  solemn  call- 
ing of  the  Twelve  on  the  lake  shore ;  his  name  was 
changed  by  Jesus  from  Simon  to  that  of  The  Rock, 
as  Jehovah  had  changed  the  names  of  Abraham  and 
of  Jacob ;  Jesus  selects  Peter's  boat  as  His  pulpit  ; 
commands  him  to  make  the  miraculous  draught  of 
fishes;  cures  his  wife's  mother;  bids  him' walk  on  the 


THE  PRIMACY  OF  PETER. 


747 


water ;  and  associates  Himself  with  Peter  in  the  pay- 
ment of  the  tax.  As  Peter  had  been  inspired  from 
on  high  to  proclaim  the  Apostle's  faith,  "Thou  art 
the  Christ  the  Son  of  the  living  God,"  so  he  is 
moved  habitually  to  be  the  spokesman  of  his  breth- 
ren:  "Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go?  Thou  hast  the 
words  of  eternal  life  "  ;  "  How  often  shall  my  brother 
offend  me  and  I  shall  forgive  him?"  "L,ord,  behold 
we  have  left  all  things  and  followed  Thee  "  ;  "  Rabbi, 
behold  the  fig-tree  which  thou  didst  curse,  it  is 
withered."  He  was  the  first  whose  feet  Jesus  wash- 
ed ;  he  was  the  first  Apostle  to  enter  the  sepulchre, 
and  the  first  one  of  them  who  saw  the  risen 
Saviour ;  the  only  one  whose  death  is  especial- 
ly predicted  by  Jesus ;  all  this  though  an  ob- 
stinate man  and  thrice  foresworn  against  his 
Master.  And  when  the  Master  was  ascended 
into  heaven  Peter  is  instinctively  the  leader, 
and  is  acknowledged  so  to  be  :  he  presides 
at  the  election  of  Matthias ;  after  the  coming 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  he  preaches  the  first  sermon, 
converting  three  thousand ;  he  preaches 
the  second  sermon,  converting  five 
thousand  ;  he  works  the  first  miracle 
at  the  gate  of  the  Temple  ;  he  preaches 
a  great  sermon  to  the  people  in  ex- 
planation of  it ;  he  is  the  official  defender  of  the 
Church  before  the  Sanhedrin ;  he  punishes  Ana- 
nias and  Saphira ;  he  heals  the  sick  by  his  very 
shadow  ;  he  is  released  from  prison  by  an  angel ;  he 
is  consulted  by  St.  Paul  during  fifteen  days ;  Peter 
it  is  who  receives  the  revelation  of  the  full  and 
immediate  admission  of  the  gentiles  to  the  Church; 
he  raises  Dorcas  from  the  dead ;  he  presides  at  the 
council  of  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem;  he  condemns 


"  It  is  the  Lord." 


748 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 
the     first     heresy,    that    of    Simon 


"  Cast  himself  into  the  sea." 


and    suppresses 
Magus. 

All  this  is  the  outline  of  Peter's  dignity  as  shown 
in  Scripture.  But  besides  teaching  us  by  his  written 
word,  God  teaches  us  also  by  His  providential 
care  of  His  Church.  And  if  both  the  direct  and  the 
cumulative  force  of  revealed  truth  as  above  summar- 
ized is  overwhelming  for  Peter's  office,  so  is  the  in- 
terposition of  an  overruling  Providence.  God's  provi- 
dence has  favored  Peter's  successors,  the  Bishops  of 
Rome,  in  the  most  striking  manner.  For,  as  all  his- 
torians now  admit,  Peter  established  his  bishopric  in 
Rome,  which  became  the  arena  of  conflict  between 
Christianity  as  represented  by  Peter's  successors,  and 
paganism  as  championed  by  the  Roman  Empire.  The 
Bishops  of  Rome  marshalled  the  Christian  forces 
which  conquered  paganism  ;  they  propagated  Christ's 
religion  to  the  ends  of  the  imperial  do- 
minions ;  they  steadied  and  rectified  the 
development  of  Christ's  doctrine ;  they 
shook  off  safely  the  contagion  of  decaying 
heathen  civilization ;  they  converted  the 
barbarous  tribes  of  the  North,  the  ances- 
tors of  the  modern  nations,  and  they  civ- 
ilized them  ;  the  Popes  saved  the  Scrip- 
tures, saved  the  faith  in  the  Trinity,  in 
the  Incarnation,  in  the  grace  of  Christ ; 
saved  Christendom  from  Mohammedanism. 
The  Popes  and  their  adherents  vere  the 
entire  Christian  Church  from  Nero  till 
Martin  Luther. 

Thus  was  Peter,  and  in  him  his  suc- 
cessors, honored  by  the  Saviour  of  the 
world  and  the  Founder  of  the  Christian 
Church.  And  when  Jesus  had  done  him 


THE  PRIMACY  OF  PETER. 


749 


"  None    of    them     .     .     .    durst 
Who  art  Thou  ?  knowing  it  was  the 


this  singular  honor,  He  pre- 
dicted the  manner  of  his  death, 
that  he  should  be  seized  and 
bound  and  martyred  in  his  old 
age  for  the  name  of  Christ. 

Now  follows  a  singular  epi- 
sode in  that  very  beautiful 
union  between  John  and  Peter, 
between  the  types  of  divine  love 
and  divine  sovereignty,  a  union 
begun  long  before  in  Galilee, 
but  made  especially  close  after 
the  last  supper. 

Jesus  having  conferred  the 
primacy  on  Peter,  led  him  apart, 
saying  to  him,  "Follow  Me," 
and  the  other  Apostles  came 
on  after  them.  Now  Peter  hoped  that  John  should 
also  be  given  some  special  dignity,  and  so  he  pluck- 
ed up  courage  to  hint  at  it.  "  Peter  turning  about, 
saw  that  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  following,  who  also 
leaned  on  His  breast  at  supper,  and  said  :  Lord,  who 
is  he  that  shall  betray  Thee?  Him  therefore  when 
Peter  had  seen,  he  saith  to  Jesus  :  Lord,  and  what  shall 
this  man  do  ? ' '  But  our  Saviour  rebuked  him  :  "Jesus 
saith  to  him  :  So  I  will  have  him  to  remain  till  I 
come,  what  is  it  to  thee  ?  follow  thou  Me." 

Hence  Peter's  wish  to  know  what  high  place  John, 
the  Lord's  favorite  and  the  favorite  of  all  his  breth- 
ren, should  have  in  the  new  kingdom  was  very 
natural.  The  answer  really  meant  that  no  special 
office  was  to  be  given  John.  But  the  Lord's  words, 
"  So  I  will  have  him  to  remain  until  I  come,"  to  hearts 
eager  for  mysteries  and  marvels,  seemed  to  mean  the 
gift  of  perpetual  life  on  earth  till  the  day  of  judg- 


ask    Him 
Lord." 


750  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

ment.  This  error  St.  John  himself  takes  the  trouble 
to  set  right.  And  then  he  ends  his  gospel,  solemnly 
affirming  his  truthfulness  as  an  evangelist,  and  also 
the  fragmentary  nature  of  his  and  every  other  account 
of  the  Saviour's  life  and  teaching.  "This  saying 
therefore  went  abroad  among  the  brethren,  that  that 
disciple  should  not  die.  And  Jesus  did  not  say  to 
him  :  He  should  not  die ;  but,  So  I  will  have  him 
to  remain  till  I  come,  what  is  it  to  thee  ?  This  is 
that  disciple  who  giveth  testimony  of  these  things, 
and  hath  written  these  things :  and  we  know  that 
his  testimony  is  true.  But  there  are  also  many  other 
things  which  Jesus  did  :  which  if  they  were  written 
every  one,  the  world  itself,  I  think,  would  not  be 
able  to  contain  the  books  that  should  be  written." 


JESUS  APPEALS  TO  A  GREAT  MULTITUDE.         751 
CHAPTER  VII. 

JESUS  APPEARS  TO  A  GREAT  MULTITUDE  ON  A  MOUN- 
TAIN IN  GAULEE. — APPARITION  TO  ST.  JAMES. — 
THE  COMMISSION  OF  THE  TEACHING  CHURCH. 

Matt,  xxviii.    16—20 ;    Mark  xvi.    14—18 ;  Luke   xxiv. 
44-49 ;  Acts  i.  4.,  5 ;  I.  Cor.  xv.  6,  7. 

IT  was  only  after  Easter  week  that  the  Apostles, 
according  to  the  Saviour's  original  direction,  made 
their  way  into  Galilee,  where,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
He  appeared  to  them  by  the  L,ake  of  Genesareth.  And 
now  we  have  St.  Matthew's  account  of  another  and 
very  public  apparition,  of  which  St.  Paul  also  makes 
mention  in  his  first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  "And 
the  eleven  disciples,"  says  St.  Matthew,  "went  into 
Galilee,  unto  the  mountain  where  Jesus  had  appointed 
them."  And  St.  Paul :  "  Then  was  He  seen  by  more 
than  five  hundred  brethren  at  once."  Again  St.  Mat- 
thew :  "And  seeing  Him,  they  adored;  but  some 
doubted."  This  great  assemblage  was  probably 
selected  carefully  by  the  Apostles  as  they  passed 
among  Christ's  followers  on  their  journey  from  Jeru- 
salem to  Galilee. 

St.  Paul  is,  as  we  have  already  noticed,  our  only 
authority  for  the  separate  apparition  to  St.  James 
(tradition  says  it  was  James  son  of  Alpheus,  James 
the  younger).  It  is  related  in  the  same  place  in 
First  Corinthians  :  "  After  that  He  was  seen  by  James, 
then  by  all  the  Apostles." 

It  was  probably  at  Jerusalem  (though  St.  Matthew's 
account  would  seem  to  place  it  in  Galilee)  that  our 
Saviour  appointed  His  Apostles  to  assemble  for  His 
last  interview  with  them  previous  to  His  Ascension. 
The  occasion  was  a  solemn  one,  and  He  chose  it  to 


752 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


At  length  [i.e.,  lastly]  he  appeared  to  the 
eleven  as  they  were  at  table  :  and  he  up- 
braided them  with  their  incredulity  and 
hardness  of  heart,  because  they  did  not  be- 
lieve them  who  had  seen  him  after  he  was 


risen  again.  And  he  said  to  them  :  Going 
therefore  teach  ye  all  nations  :  baptizing 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 


Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Teaching 
them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I 
have  commanded  you  :  and  behold  I  am 
with  you  all  days,  even  to  the  consumma- 
tion of  the  world.  Go  ye  into  the  whole 
world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  crea- 
ture. He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized, 
shall  be  saved  :  but  he  that  believeth  not 
shall  be  condemned.  And  these  signs  shall 


foil,  w    them  that  believe:    In  my   name 

y 
with    new   tongues  ;    they    shall    take   up 


they  shall  cast  out  devils:  they  shall  speak 


once  more  convey  to  them,  in  a  full 
statement,  His  oft-repeated  purpose 
to  teach  the  race  of  man  the  saving 
truths  of  God  by  their  instrumen- 
tality. Never  so  solemnly,  so  fully, 
now  when  His  departure  was  at 
hand,  had  He  invested  them  with 
the  Catholic  Apostolate. 

Never  before  had  His  universal 
office  as  head  of  the  entire  human 
race  been  so  powerfully  expressed. 
All  men  are  His,  for  He  has  all 
power  over  them  in  heaven  and  on 
earth  ;  they  are  all  to  be  taught  His 
truth  by  the  Apostleship  He  has 
founded,  or  rather,  as  the  Greek 
text  shows,  all  men  are  not  simply 
to  be  taught  but  to  be  made  disci- 
ples of.  All  truth  is  to  be  made  the 
common  heritage  by  this  organized 
teaching  body,  the  treasures  of 
divine  wisdom  thus  systematically 
to  be  given  forth  among  all  nations. 
The  teaching  now  begun  shall  last 
all  ages  in  the  full  vigor  of  a  living 
society  perpetually  safeguarded  by 
His  own  personal  presence. 
In  this  Apostolic  charter  we  are  struck  with  the 
overpowering  sense  of  universality:  All  Power,  All 
Nations,  All  Truth,  All  Ages.  There  is  no  room 
for  national  churches  in  Christ's  broad  plan,  nor  for 
the  expedients  and  shifts  of  those  who  would  pick 
and  choose  what  is  timely  and  let  the  rest  lie  in 
abeyance  —  no  room  for  personal  churches  ;  no  man 
may  be  a  church  to  himself.  God  the  Son  is  teacher 


serpents  :  and  if  they  shall  drink  any 
d-^ad.y  thing,  it  shall  not  hurt  them  : 
they  shall  lay  their  hands  upon  the  sick, 
and  they  shall  recover.  These  are  the 
words  which  I  spoke  to  you  while  I  was  yet 
with  you,  and  all  things  must  needs  be  ful- 
filled, which  are  written  in  the  law  of 
Moses,  and  in  the  prophets,  and  in  the 
psalms,  concerning  me.  Then  he  opened 
t.ieir  understanding,  that  they  might  under- 
stand the  scriptures.  And  he  said  to  them  : 
'I  hus  it  is  written,  and  thus  it  behoved 
Christ  to  suffer,  and  to  rise  again  from  the 
dead  the  third  day  :  And  that  penance  and 
the  remission  of  sins  should  be  preached  in 
Lis  name  unto  all  nations,  beginning  at 
J  arusalem.  And  you  are  witnesses  of  these 
things.  And  I  send  the  promise  of  my 
Father  upon  you  :  but  stay  you  in  the  city, 
till  you  be  endued  with  power  from  on 
high.  For  John  indeed,  baptized  with 
water  •  but  you  shall  be  baptized  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  not  many  days  hence. 


COMMISSION  OF  THE  TEACHING  CHURCH. 


753 


of  the  whole  world  and  of  all  truth  and  for  all  time, 
and  by  an  organism,  His  Church,  whose  universality 
and  perpetuity  and  authority  shall  always  be  in  con- 
trast with  the  pettiness  of  human  institutions  and 
methods. 

Jesus  thus  founded  a  public  society  of  teaching 
ministers;  perpetual  "until  the  consummation  of  the 
world";  infallible,  for  "behold  I  am  with  you  all 
days  "  ;  of  one  and  the  same  doctrine  in  every  genera- 
tion, "teaching  them  all  things  whatsoever  I  have 
commanded  you."  And  as  a  matter  of  fact  He  has 
made  His  word  good,  and  His  Catholic  and  Apostolic 
Church  has  ever  been  the  standard  and  rule  of  the 
Christian  faith,  continues  to  be  so  in  our  own  time, 
and  will  ever  remain  so. 


754  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

JESUS   ASCENDS  INTO  HEAVEN. 
Mark  xvi.  19  ;  Luke  xxiv.  S°~S3 »   Acts  i.  3—12. 

WE  have  seen  that  it  was  not  by  continuous  pres- 
ence but  by  appearing  on  separate  occasions  that 
Jesus  was  with  His  Apostles  after  His  resurrection, 
though  His  farewell  interview  was  more  protracted  ; 
and  at  each  apparition  He  tarried  long  enough  to 
teach  important  doctrines  and  fill  their  hearts  with 
great  joy.  On  the  resurrection  day  itself  He  ap- 
peared to  Mary  Magdalene,  then  to  the  other  women, 
next  to  Peter,  afterwards  in  the  evening  to  the  two 
disciples  on  the  road  to  Emmaus,  and  finally,  late  at 
night,  to  the  eleven  (except  Thomas)  in  a  room  in 
the  city.  The  following  Sunday  He  appeared  in  the 
same  place  to  the  Apostles  (including  Thomas) ,  then 
to  seven  of  them  near  the  L,ake  of  Genesareth,  after- 
wards on  a  mountain  in  Galilee  to  a  multitude  of 
disciples,  and  also  separately  to  James.  His  final 
apparition-  was  His  solemn  leave-taking  immediately 
preceding  the  Ascension.  Thus  we  have  ten  separate, 
distinctly  recorded,  occasions  of  the  risen  Saviour's 
appearance  to  His  followers, 

St.  Paul's  testimony  to  these  events  is  given  in 
his  first  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  being  offered  to 
his  converts  as  evidence  of  the  L,ord's  resurrection : 
' '  He  was  seen  by  Cephas,  and  after  that  by  the 
eleven.  Then  was  He  seen  by  more  than  five  hun- 
dred brethren  at  once,  of  whom  many  remain  until 
this  present,  and  some  are  fallen  asleep.  After  that 
He  was  seen  by  James."  There  is  no  mention  of 
the  apparition  to  James  in  the  Gospel  narrative,  which 
is  one  reason  more  for  supposing  that  on  yet  other 


JESUS  ASCENDS  INTO  'HEA  VEN.  755 

unrecorded  occasions   our    Saviour   appeared    to    His 
disciples. 

St.  L,uke,  in  the  Book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles, says  of  this  wondrous  period  between  our  Sa- 
viour's resurrection  and  ascension  that,  "He  showed 
Himself  alive  after  His  passion,  by  many  proofs,  for 
forty  days  appearing  to  them,  and  speaking  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God."  He  had  mainly  concerned  Him- 
self during  this  last  era  of  His  mission  with  the 
union  of  the  inner  life  of  His  grace  with  its  out- 
ward life  in  His  Church.  First,  He  shaped  with  final 
perfection  the  public  incorporation  of  His  Apostles 
into  the  teaching  Church  ;  second,  He  placed  Peter 
at  the  head  by  a  most  emphatic  gift  of  primacy; 
third,  He  instituted  by  repeated  insistence  the  Sac- 
rament of  Baptism,  that  external  ordinance  for  the 
admission  of  new  members  into  His  faith  and  Church  ; 
fourth,  He  instituted  in  the  Sacrament  of  Penance  the 
rite  of  reconciliation  of  sinful  but  penitent  members. 

There   was  much   in  this  last  part  of  His 
teaching,  both   by  its  sublimity  and  the  daz- 
zling glory  which   often  encir- 
cled  Him,  which  confused  the 
minds    of    the     Apostles.       He 
awed    them  as    He   had    never 
done  before.    He  was  with  them 
as  '  *  the  living  among  the  dead, ' ' 
and  they   felt   the   contrast  too 
strongly  to   be   quite    at   home 
with    Him.     If  in   former  days 
His   demeanor  was  so 
kindly  as  to  attract  lit- 
tle   children     and     to 
stimulate  petitions  for 

miracles,  now  the  great"  While  they  looked  on,  He  was  raised  up,  .  .  .  out  of  their  sight." 


7S«  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Healer,  though  still  most  benignant  in  every  look  and 
word,  is  yet  haloed  around  with  majesty. 

His  beauty  is  greater  than  ever  before,  and  it  is 
a  new  beauty.  The  splendor  of  divinity  is  more 
clearly  seen  in  Jesus  now  because  His  body  is  clari- 
fied— God  shines  more  perfectly  through  it.  God's 
love  for  man  pours  out  of  the  five  wounds,  pours  out 
of  the  eyes  of  Jesus,  and  speaks  forth  in  the  words 
of  the  new-made  Man- God.  This  hindered  an  inti- 
mate and  familiar  union  with  the  Master.  But  He 
will  soon  give  place  to  the  Comforter,  whose  inward 
love  will  bring  Jesus  home  to  every  heart,  and  whose 
life-giving  power  will  make  their  little  brotherhood, 
the  newly  formed  Church,  the  mystical  body  of  Christ : 
a  closer  union  between  God  and  man  than  that  even 
with  the  present  Master,  but  one  more  spiritual  and 
more  capable  of  developing  responsive  love. 

Drawing  towards  the  end,  "  He  led  them  out  as 
far  as  Bethania,"  or,  as  it  may  be  understood,  along 
the  road  towards  that  village,  and  back  again  to 
Mount  Olivet.  The  Kingdom  of  God  had  been  His 
constant  theme,  but  never  had  He  been  able  quite 
to  exclude  from  the  disciples'  minds  the  thought  of 
the  kingdom  of  Israel.  "They  therefore  who  were 
come  together,  asked  Him  saying :  L,ord,  wilt  Thou 
at  this  time  restore  again  the  kingdom  to  Israel  ? ' ' 
They  still  longed  for  the  fierce  joy  of  militant  Israel, 
while  He  could  only  give  them  the  plaintive  joy  of 
victorious  crucifixion.  Jesus  in  His  answer  does  not 
rebuke  them,  nor  does  He  dwell  upon  what  in  fact 
His  Father  had  willed  to  keep  secret — the  date  and 
other  circumstances  of  the  restoration  of  the  people 
of  Israel  to  the  divine  favor.  "  But  He  said  to  them  : 
It  is  not  for  you  to  know  the  times  or  moments,  which 
the  Father  hath  put  in  His  own  power."  And  then 


JESVS  ASCENDS  INTO  HBA  VEN.  757 

He  brings  back  their  attention  to  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  and  how,  centring  in  Jerusalem,  it  should  by 
their  means  become  His  universal  empire.  "  But  you 
shall  receive  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  coming 
upon  you,  and  you  shall  be  witnesses  unto  Me  in 
Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea,  and  Samaria,  and  even 
to  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth."  First,  therefore, 
a  full  Apostolate  should  be  made  in  Jerusalem  and 
Judea,  afterwards  in  Samaria,  as  among  a  people  inter- 
mediate between  the  Jews  and  the  Gentiles,  and  then, 
beginning  with  the  martyrdom  of  Stephen  and  the 
baptism  of  Cornelius  by  Peter  after  a  special  revela- 
tion, and  finally  by  the  conversion  and  Apostleship  of 
Saul  of  Tarsus,  the  whole  world  should  be  evangel- 
ized. 

All  this  teaching  of  Jesus  had  been  burned  into  the 
souls  of  His  followers  by  the  fire  of  His  glorified 
state,  painful  in  its  intensity  but  also  joyful  and  tri- 
umphant. The  forty  days  of  it  had  soon  rolled  away, 
marked  by  the  quickly  recurring  events  of  His  ap- 
paritions. How  would  it  all  end  at  last? — they  must 
have  asked  each  other  this  question  very  often,  hard- 
ly daring  to  ask  Himself.  "It  is  expedient  that  I 
go,"  He  had  said;  and  "If  I  go  not  the  Paraclete 
will  not  come,"  He  had  insisted.  But  just  how  and 
where  would  He  depart  ? 

Very  simply  did  He  take  His  leave  of  them,  and 
most  lovingly.  He  led  them  out  of  the  city  to  His 
old  familiar  place  of  prayer  on  Mount  Olivet ;  then 
He  gave  them  directions  to  return  to  the  city  after 
He  was  gone  and  await  the  Holy  Spirit ;  after  that 
He  lifted  His  hands  over  their  kneeling  forms  and 
affectionately  blessed  them.  They  then  saw  upon  His 
face  the  glow  of  heavenly  ecstasy,  they  saw  Him  gra- 
dually rise  above  the  earth.  As  they  gazed  at  His  de- 


75* 


•  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHKIST. 


parting  form,  an  indescribable  awe  possessed  their  souls, 
a  bright  vapor  overspread  them,  and  Jesus  their  Master 
was  gone.  Then  they  saw  two  bright  angels  stand- 
ing by.  These  spoke  words  of  comfort  to  them  and 
promised  them  the  L,ord's  second  coming,  and  disap- 
peared. 

They  shared  His  triumph  in  their  hearts  and 
minds,  they  were  overjoyed  at  His  glorious  victory  ; 
but  this  was  not  unmingled  with  a  feeling  of  sad- 
ness. They  felt  that  as  His  triumph  was  gained  by 
sorrow,  suffering,  and  death,  their  own  and  that  of 
the  Church  He  had  founded  must  be  sanctified  and 
prepared  for  the  heavenly  nuptials  in  no  other  way. 
The  winding  sheet  of  Jesus  was  to  be  the  bridal  veil 
of  the  Church ;  this  they  now  fully  realized. 

The  Ascension  of  Jesus  is  the  completion  of  the 
design  of  God  in  raising  Him  from  the  dead.  The 
place  for  deathless  bodies  is  not  earth  but  heaven. 
The  triumph  over  death  and  hell  must  be  celebrated 
in  Paradise,  amid  the  hosts  of  un- 
dying spirits,  and  all  that  Jesus  can 
promise  us  is  that  when  there  shall 
be  a  new  earth  and  sky,  then  He 
shall  come  again  as  now  He  glori- 
ously ascends,  and,  making  all  things 
new,  He  shall  renew  our  bodies  in 
like  manner  as  He  has  renewed  His 
own.  Meantime  we  are  to  wait  and 
pray  and  work  and  suffer  as  did 
the  Apostles,  till  the  coming  of  the 
Saviour. 

How  much  easier  it  was  for  them 
to  realize  the  glories  of  immortality 
Ascension,    and   to   have   faith   in    Christ's 
when  in    their    ascending    Master 


And  the  Lord  Jesus,  after  he  had  spoken 
these  things  to  them,  lifting  up  his  hands 
he  blessed  them.  And  it  came  to  pass 
whilst  he  blessed  them  he  departed  from 
them  ;  and  while  they  looked  on,  he  was 
raised  up,  and  a  cloud  received  him  out  of 
their  sight ;  and  [he]  was  carried  up  to 
heaven,  and  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of 
God.  And  while  they  were  beholding  him 
going  up  to  heaven,  behold  two  men  stood 
by  them  in  white  garments :  Who  also 
said  :  Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why  stand  you 
looking  up  to  heaven  ?  This  Jesus  who  is 
taken  up  from  you  into  heaven,  shall  so 
come  as  you  have  seen  him  going  into 
heaven.  And  they  adoring,  went  back  into 
Jerusalem  with  great  joy,  from  the  mount 
which  is  called  Olivet,  which  is  nigh  Jeru- 
salem, within  a  Sabbath-day's  journey. 
And  they  were  continually  in  the  temple, 
praising  and  blessing  God.  Amen. 


after   the 
eternal    kingdom, 


JESUS  ASCENDS  INTO  HEA  YEN.  759 

they   saw  what  quality  of    power  and   of    glory  is  in 
store  for  even  our  bodily  immortality! 

The  Apostles  returned  to  Jerusalem,  the  bright 
cloud  still  dazzling  their  eyes,  and  the  angels'  promise 
of  the  I^ord's  return  to  earth — promise  upon  promise 
it  was  and  often  renewed — still  softly  echoing  in  their 
hearts. 

They    knew   that  the  seraphs   were   now   adoring 
their  Master  in  the  highest  heavens,  and  they 
had  not  forgotten  His  word,  "  I  will  not  leave 
you  orphans  ' '  ;  with  longing  souls  they  gather- 
ed all  the  discipleship,  including  the  Mother  of 
Jesus  and  the  other  holy  women,  into  the  place  appoint- 
ed for  their  waiting,  and  there  they  prayed  to  Jesus  and 
communed  with  each  other  till  the  coming  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  company  thus  assembled  numbering  about 
one  hundred  and  twenty.     During  the  regular  hours 
of  morning  and  evening  prayer  in  the  Temple,   some 
of  their   number  visited  the  holy  place   and  fervently 
joined   in   the   public   devotions.      A    new-born   spirit 
of  affection   and  one-mindedness   was   now   in  control.        tolieaven  " 

Yet  they  must  have  felt  empty  and  forsaken  dur- 
ing those  ten  days.  It  is  hard  to  live  on  promises, 
even  God's.  It  did  seem  to  them  like  orphanhood,  that 
the  L,ord  after  His  own  triumph,  His  own  spiritual- 
ization  even  of  body,  His  own  security  from  death 
and  woe,  should  be  lifted  up  and  taken  from  them 
and  hidden  from  their  eyes,  wafted  away  into  the 
distant  and  silent  heavens.  Their  consolation  never 
could  have  been  perfect  after  Ascension  day.  But 
soon  the  Holy  Ghost  came  to  them,  and  infused  His 
glorious  and  militant  zeal  into  their  hearts. 


760  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

• 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  ELECTION  OF  MATTHIAS. — THE  DESCENT  OF  THE 
HOLY  GHOST. — THE  FIRST  PREACHING  OF  THE 
APOSTLES. 

Mark  xvi.  20 ;  Acts  i.  13—4.7. 

OUR  concluding  chapter  is  the  inspired  history  of 
the  Descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  the  beginnings 
of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Jerusalem. 

"And  when  they  were  come  in,  they  went  up  into  an  upper 
room,  where  abode  Peter  and  John,  James  and  Andrew,  Philip 
and  Thomas,  Bartholomew  and  Matthew,  James  of  Alpheus  and 
Simon  Zelotes,  and  Jude  the  brother  of  James.  All  these  were 
persevering  with  one  mind  in  prayer  with  the  women,  and  Mary 
the  mother  of  Jesus,  and  with  his  brethren.  In  those  days  Peter 
rising  up  in  the  midst  of  the  brethren,  said  :  (now  the  number 
of  persons  together  was  about  an  hundred  and  twenty, )  Men 
brethren,  the  scripture  must  needs  be  fulfilled,  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  spoke  before  by  the  mouth  of  David  concerning  Judas, 
who  was  the  leader  of  them  that  apprehended  Jesus :  who  was 
numbered  with  us,  and  had  obtained  part  of  this  ministry.  And 
he  indeed  hath  possessed  a  field  of  the  reward  of  iniquity,  and 
being  hanged,  burst  asunder  in  the  midst :  and  all  his  bowels 
gushed  out.  And  it  became  known  to  all  the  inhabitants  of 
Jerusalem  :  so  that  the  same  field  was  called  in  their  tongue 
Haceldama,  that  is  to  say,  the  field  of  blood.  For  it  is  written 
in  the  book  of  Psalms  :  Let  their  habitation  become  desolate^  and 
let  there  be  none  to  dwell  therein.  And  his  bishoprick  let  an- 
other take.  Wherefore  of  these  men  who  have  companied  with 
us,  all  the  time  that  the  Lord  Jesus  came  in  and  went  out 
among  us,  beginning  from  the  baptism  of  John  until  the  day 
wherein  he  was  taken  up  from  us,  one  of  these  must  be  made 
a  witness  with  us  of  his  resurrection.  And  they  appointed  two, 
Joseph,  called  Barsabas,  who  was  surnamed  Justus,  and  Matthias. 
And  praying  they  said  :  Thou,  Lord,  who  knowest  the  hearts 
of  all  men,  show  whether  of  these  two  thou  hast  chosen,  to 
take  the  place  of  this  ministry  and  apostleship,  from  which 
Judas  hath  by  transgression  fallen,  that  he  might  go  to  his 


THE  DESCENT  OF  THE  HOL  Y  GHOST.  761 

own  place.      And  they  gave  them  lots,  and  the  lot  fell  upon 
Matthias,  and  he  was  numbered  with  the  eleven  apostles. 

"And  when  the  days  of  the  pentecost  were  accomplished, 
they  were  altogether  in  one  place  :  And  suddenly  there  came 
a  sound  from  heaven,  as  of  a  mighty  wind  coming,  and  it 
filled  the  whole  house  where  they  were  sitting.  And  there 
appeared  to  them  parted  tongues  as  it  were  of  fire,  and  it  sat 
upon  every  one  of  them :  And  they  were  all  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  they  began  to  speak  with  divers  tongues, 
according  as  the  Holy  Ghost  gave  them  to  speak.  Now  there 
were  dwelling  at  Jerusalem  Jews,  devout  men  out  of  every  nation 
under  heaven.  And  when  this  was  noised  abroad,  the  multitude 
came  together,  and  were  confounded  in  mind,  because  that  every 
man  heard  them  speak  in  his  own  tongue.  And  they  were  all 
amazed  and  wondered,  saying :  Behold  are  not  all  these,  that 
speak,  Galileans  ?  And  how  have  we  heard,  every  man  our  own 
tongue  wherein  we  were  born  ?  Parthians,  and  Medes,  and 
Elamites,  and  inhabitants  of  Mesopotamia,  Judea,  and  Cappa- 
docia,  Pontus  and  Asia,  Phrygia,  and  Pamphilia,  Egypt,  and 
the  parts  of  Libya  about  Cyrene,  and  strangers  of  Rome, 
Jews  also,  and  proselytes,  Cretes  and  Arabians :  we  have  heard 
them  speak  in  our  own  tongues  the  wonderful  works  of  God. 
And  they  were  all  astonished,  and  wondered,  saying  one  to  an- 
other :  What  meaneth  this  ?  But  others  mocking  said  :  These 
men  are  full  of  new  wine.  But  Peter  standing  up  with  the 
eleven,  lifted  up  his  voke,  and  spoke  to  them  :  Ye  men  of  Judea, 
and  all  you  that  dwell  in  Jerusalem,  be  this  known  to  you, 
and  with  your  ears  receive  my  words.  For  these  are  not  drunk, 
as  you  suppose,  seeing  it  is  but  the  third  hour  of  the  day. 
But  this  is  that  which  was  spoken  of  by  the  prophet  Joel  :  And 
it  shall  come  to  pass,  in  the  last  days,  (saith  the  Lord}  I  will  pour 
out  of  my  Spirit  upon  all  flesh  :  and  your  sons  and  your  daughters 
shall  prophesy \  and  your  young  men  shall  see  visions,  and  your 
old  men  shall  dream  dreams.  And  upon  my  servants  indeed, 
and  upon  my  handmaids  will  I  pour  out  in  those  days  of  my 
Spirit  and  they  shall  prophesy.  And  I  will  show  wonders  in  the 
heaven  above,  and  signs  on  the  earth  beneath ;  blood  and  fire, 
and  vapor  of  smoke.  The  sun  shall  be  turned  into  darkness, 
and  the  moon  into  blood,  before  the  great  and  manifest  day 
of  the  Lord  come.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  whosoever 
shall  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord,  shall  be  saved.  Ye  men 
of  Israel,  hear  these  word*  :  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man  approved 


762  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

of  God  among  you,  by  miracles  and  wonders  and  signs,  which 
God  did  by  him  in  the  midst  of  you,  as  you   also  know  :  This 
same  being  delivered  up,  by  the  determinate  counsel  and  fore- 
knowledge of  God,  you  by  the  hands  of  wicked  men  have  cruci- 
fied and  slain.     Whom  God  hath  raised  up,  having  loosed  the 
sorrows  of  hell,  as  it  was  impossible  that  he  should  be  holden 
by  it.     For  David  saith  concerning  him  :  I  foresaw  the  Lord  be- 
fore my  face,  because  he  is  at  my  right  hand  that  I  may  not 
be  moved.     For  this  my  heart  hath  been  glad,  and  my  tongue 
hath  rejoiced :  moreover  my  flesh  also  shall  rest  in  hope.     Be- 
cause thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  hell,  nor  suffer  thy  Holy 
One  to  see  corruption.     Thou  hast  made  known  to  me  the  ways 
of  life :  thou  shalt  'make  me  full  of  joy  with  thy  countenance. 
Ye  men  brethren,  let  me  freely  speak  to  you  of  the  patriarch 
David ;  that  he  died  and  was  buried  ;  and  his  sepulchre  is  with 
us  to  this  present  day.     Whereas  therefore  he  was  a  prophet, 
and  knew  that  God  had  sworn  to  him  with  an  oath  that  of  the 
fruit  of  his  loins  one  should  sit   upon  his  throne ;   foreseeing 
this,  he  spoke  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ.     For   neither  was 
he  left  in  hell,   neither  did  his  flesh  see  corruption.     This  Jesus 
hath  God  raised  again,    whereof  all   we  are  witnesses.      Being 
exalted   therefore   by  the  right    hand  of  God,   and  having  re- 
ceived of  the  Father  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,   he  hath 
poured  forth  this  which  you  see  and  hear.     For  David  ascended 
not  into  heaven ;  but  he  himself  saicl :    The  Lord  said  to  my 
Lord,  sit  thou  on  my  right  hand,  until  I  make  thy  enemies  thy 
footstool.     Therefore  let  all  the  house  of  Israel  know  most  cer- 
tainly that  God  hath  made  both   Lord,    and  Christ,   this  same 
Jesus,  whom  you  have  crucified.     Now  when   they  had  heard 
these  things  they  had  compunction  in  their  heart,  and  said  to 
Peter  and  to  the  rest  of  the  Apostles  :  What  shall  we  do,  men 
and  brethren?     But  Peter  said  to  them:  Do   penance,    and  be 
baptized  every  one  of  you  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,   for  the 
remission  of  your   sins:  and   you  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the 
Holy   Ghost.     For  the  promise  is  to  you,  and  to  your  children, 
and  to  all  that  are  far  off,  whomsoever  the  I/ord  our  God  shall 
call.    And  with  very  many   other  words  did  he  testify  and  ex- 
hort them,   saying :  Save  yourselves  from,  this  perverse  genera- 
tion.   They  therefore  that  received  his  word  were  baptized  :  and 
there  were  added  in  that  day  about  three  thousand  souls.     And 
they  were  persevering  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Apostles,  and  in  the 
communication  of  the  breaking  of  bread,  and  in  prayers.    And 


FIRST  PREACHING  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


763 


fear  came  upon  every  soul :  many  wonders  also  and  signs  were 
done  by  the  Apostles  in  Jerusalem,  and  there  was  great  fear  in 
all.  And  all  they  that  believed  were  together,  and  had  all  things 
common.  Their  possessions  and  goods  they  sold,  and  divided 
them  to  all,  according  as  every  one  had  need.  And  continuing 
daily  with  one  accord  in  the  temple,  and  breaking  bread  from 
house  to  house,  they  took  their  meat  with  gladness  and  simplicity 
of  heart :  praising  God  and  having  favor  with  all  the  people. 
And  the  Lord  increased  daily  together  such  as  should  be  saved. 

' '  And  [the  Apostles  and  disciples]  going  forth 
preached  everywhere,  the  I,ord  working  withal  and 
confirming  the  word  with  signs  that  followed." 


9MB  ENB. 


EPILOGUE. 


JESUS  CHRIST  IS  GOD. 


"YE  SHALL  BE  AS  GODS." 
WE  need  to  appreciate  that  the  doctrine  of  the  In- 
carnation  is  not   a  hard  one  to  accept.     There  is  no  God  and  man  in  one 
revolt   in   the   natural   mind   against    the   thought   of    person  is  not  incredi- 
God    becoming    man.      It    is    not    a    thought    which  ble' 
arouses  aversion  in  us.     Indeed,  we  give  it  welcome. 
That  man  should  be   raised  to  a  participation  in  the 
divine  nature  is  a  difficult  thing  to  understand^  if  the 
word   is   meant    to    imply    a   full    and   clea'r    compre- 
hension.    But  the  human   race  or   any   part  of  it  has 
never  felt  it  to  be  incredible. 

To    inquire   into    this    favorable   tendency    of   our 
minds  towards  the  Incarnation  is  our  first  task.     We 

111T,  £      *    -.       r         •    i      •    *  •,•  -L       The  human  yearns  to 

shall,  I  trust,  find  it  of  much  interest  to  discuss  why  become  divine, 
men  in  all  ages  have  seemed  readily  inclined  to  be- 
lieve that  God  and  man  could  in  some  way  be 
brought  together  on  terms  of  equality.  I  do  not 
mean  to  take  the  reader  over  the  long  windings  of 
historical  research ;  my  purpose  is  not  a  historical 
treatise.  But  it  is  essential  to  realize  that  reaching 
after  the  possession  of  the  divine  is  a  distinct  fact 
of  human  experience.  In  bringing  this  out,  how- 
ever, I  am  not  going  to  exclude  the  historical  argu- 
ment for  the  Incarnation.  To  prove  that  any  being 
comes  from  God  on  a  special  mission,  miracles  are 
required;  that  is  to  say,  the  special  display  of  the 
divine  power.  Much  more  necessary  are  they  if  he 
c'Jaims  to  be  God  himself.  We  affirm  Jesus  of  Naza- 


ii  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Definition  of  the  in-  reth  to   be    true   God>   the    Creator  and   Lord  of  all 

carnation.  things,    begotten  of  the  Father  before   all  ages,   and 

one  and  the    same  being   with   Him,    born  of   Mary 

in  the  fulness  of  time  ;    in   essence,   power,   wisdom, 

goodness  and  joy,  true  God. 

The  sense  of  want  in  man  is  of  such  a  depth  as 
The  yearning  of  man  to  be  the  universal  argument  for  his  need  of  more 
for  God.  than  human  fruition,  and  in  the  moral  order  it  is 

the  irrefragable  proof  of  both  his  native  dignity  and 
his  natural  incapacity  so  to  demean  himself  as  to 
be  worthy  of  it.  This  want  is  implanted  in  man, 
and  it  attests  the  need  of  God  in  a  higher  degree 
than  nature  can  provide.  God  plants  this  yearning 
in  the  human  soul  as  a  gift  superadded  to  the  high 
endowments  of  innate  nobility.  The  best  spirits  God 
ever  made  have  always  felt  this  huge  universe  no 
bigger  than  a  bird-cage.  But  during  the  ages  prior 
to  Christ's  coming  human  aspiration  had  beat  its 
wings  against  the  sky  in  vain. 

When  God  made  man  to  His  image  and  likeness, 

Suggestions  of  the          TT        .  ,     __ .  .  ,  .     r      .  , 

Deity  in  humanity.  He  impregnated  His  creature  with  an  infusion  of 
the  divine  life;  what  cannot  God  do  with  man  when 
He  has  in  him  His  own  divine  life  to  work  with? 
"He  breathed  into  his  face  the  breath  of  life  "  (Gen. 
ii.  7).  What  life?  A  twofold  life,  the  human  and 
the  divine ;  so  that  God's  dealings  with  man  are 
with  a  noble  being  whose  every  act,  if  true  to  his 
native  nobility,  suggests  the  Deity. 

The  most  admirable  trait  of  human  nature  is  the 
The  root  of  human  desire  for  elevation ;  this  is  the  root  of  progress,  this 
progress.  is  faQ  justification  of  laudable  ambition.  To  aspire 

to  better  things  is  the  original  law  of  our  nature. 
The  yearning  after  entire  union  with  God,  though 
not  a  trait  of  nature,  is  nevertheless  like  the  knowl- 
edge that  there  is  a  God;  it  is  so  quickly  gene- 


JESUS  CHRIST  IS  GOD  iii 

rated    in   the    mind    as    to    resemble    instinct.      How 

easily  do  I  not  know  that  there   is  a  God!     I  know  The  defects  of  created 

nature  suggest  a  per- 

without  argument  that  I  did  not  make  myself;  I  know  fect  and  uncreated  na- 
that  dead  nature,  with  its  mechanical  laws,  will-less  ture. 
and  unthinking,  could  not  plan  or  make  me  ;  I  am 
master  of  nature.  How  quickly  do  I  realize  there  is 
a  supreme  being  who  is  the  Creator  and  Lord  of  all 
things.  By  just  as  quick  a  movement  do  I  leap 
into  the  consciousness  that  there  is  nothing  in  my- 
self good  enough  for  my  own  ideal,  nothing  in 
nature.  I  must  have  the  Supreme  Good  in  every- 
thing, and  I  am  supreme  in  nothing,  although  I  am 
a  king  and  nature  is  my  realm. 

And   yet   this   eagerness   of   desire   trembles   at   its 

own  boldness,  for  it  longs  to  be  God's  very  son.  The  yearning  for  di- 
The  true  revelation  of  God  will  have  as  one  of  its  vinesonshiP- 
marks  that  it  seems  too  beautiful  to  be  anything 
else  than  a  dream,  too  much  of  God  to  be  possible 
for  man  to  compass  ; — and  yet  I  must  have  it.  In  its 
maxims  it  seems  too  disinterested  to  be  real,  too 
difficult  in  its  precepts  to  be  practicable — and  yet 
alone  worthy  of  human  dignity.  God,  who  is  first 
and  with  no  second,  is  the  longing  of  the  soul — God 
to  be  held  and  possessed  on  some  awful  footing  of 
equality,  so  that  love  may  be  really  reciprocal.  "Ye 
shall  be  as  gods  "  (Gen.  iii.  5)  was  the  only  tempta- 
tion which  had  a  possibility  of  success  in  Eden. 

Man   is  essentially  a   longing  being.     The   human 
soul   is   a  void,    but   aching    to   be  filled  with    God.  The  void  in  the  hu- 
Man's  capacity  of  knowing  craves  a  divine  knowledge;  man  soul. 
of   loving,    to   enjoy   the    ecstasy   of   union    with   the 
Deity;  of  action,  to  increase  the  honor   and  glory   of 
the    infinite   God ;    of  life,    to   live   as   long   as    God. 
Daniel's  praise  from  the  angel  was  that   he  was    "  a 
man  of  desires."     It  is  not  contact  with  God  that  we 


iv,  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

want,  but  unity.  It  is  not  enlightenment  that  the 
*  ^uman  mind  wants,  but  to  be  of  the  focus  of  light. 
It  is  not  fellowship  with  God  that  we  need,  but  son- 
ship,  some  community  of  nature;  to  be  "partakers 
of  the  divine  nature,"  as  says  St.  Peter  (II.  Peter  i.  4). 
It  is  not  inspiration  from  above  that  will  content  us, 
but  deification.  The  end  of  man  is  not  to  be  rid 
of  ignorance  and  sin ;  these  are  hindrances  to  his 
end,  which  is  to  be  made  divine.  The  satisfaction 
of  the  human  heart  is  a  calm  of  divine  peace  and 
joy.  The  supernatural  attraction  of  the  Divinity  is 
such  a  stimulus  that  human  ambition  never  heard 
its  full  invitation  till  it  heard,  "  Be  perfect  as  your 
heavenly  Father  is  perfect"  (Matt.  v.  48).  That 
marks  the  lowest  point  of  satisfied  human  ambition. 

Cardinal   Newman   makes  Agellius   say  to   the  yet 

Divine  questionings  in  heathen   Callista   that  "the  Christian  religion  reveals 

the  soul.  a   present   God,    who   satisfies   every   affection   of  the 

heart,  yet  keeps  it  pure."     A   present  God:  less  than 

this  were  a  revelation  unworthy  of  God  to  a  creature 

instinct  already  with  supernatural  divine  questioning. 

In  the  satisfaction  of  the  affections  of  such  a   being 

the    best    is   a    necessity.      A    present    God    is    God 

possessed;  and  He  is  one  with  the  beloved.     I  want 

God  so   present  to  me   that   I  can  taste   and  see  that 

the   Lord   is   sweet ;    I   want  to   be   owned   by   Him; 

nay,  I  want  to  own  Him.     And  this  means  the  change 

from   the  relation  of  Creator  and  creature  to  that  of 

^         Father  and  son. 

There  are  certain  delicate  tendencies  felt  in  our 
These  questionings  soul's  best  moments  towards  what  is  higher.  They 
take  the  form  of  perceptions  of  unreasoned  truth  ^un- 
reasoned because  imperative;  or  they  are  driftings 
upon  the  upward-moving  currents  of  heavenly  at- 
traction, making  for  purity  of  life;  or  they  discover, 


JESUS  CHRIST  IS  GOD.  v 

is  by   a  divining   rod,   the    proximity   of  the    soul's 

,.  f  .  ,     ...  -r    Every  right  aim  of 

;reasure,    causing  a   distaste  for  perishable  ]oys.     Of   man  is  towards  God. 

:hese   holiest   influences    every   one   is   some    form   or 

beginning   of  a   more  than  natural    yearning   for  the 

possession   of  God   in   a   love  which   shall  have    the 

freedom  of  equality.     Man's   aim  is  God ;  and   every 

human   impulse   reaches  out,  whether  blindly  or  not, 

towards   God ;  and  every  revelation   of  God  broadens 

man's  capacity  for  Him  and  makes  his  pursuit  more 

eager.     At  the  summit  of  reason's  ascent  the  human 

soul   is   greeted   with   a   more  than   natural  light,  in 

which  it  irresistibly  looks  to  be  deified. 

The  teeming  mind,    the  overflowing  heart  of  man, 
will  be  content  with   nothing  less   than  all  that  God  The    inadequacy   of 
can  do   and    give.     "All  the  rivers   of    the  world,"  temporal  joys, 
says  the    Preacher,     "flow    down   into  the    sea,   and 
yet  the  sea   doth   not  overflow"    (Kccles.    i.    7).     So 
all  the  power  and  riches  and  pleasures  of  this  life,  if 
given  to  our  hearts  in  unstinted  measure,  would  but 
mock  that  empty  void  which   can  be  •  filled  by   God 
alone. 

Human  life  is  never  known  in  its  solemn  and  over- 
powering reality  till  it  is  known  as  destined  to  union  Life  is  real  only  when 
with  the  life  of  God.  To  say  that  life  is  real  is  to  united  to  God. 
say  that  our  interior  yearnings  for  God  shall  be  satis- 
fied by  a  union  divinely  real.  This  greatest  of  facts 
is  also  an  argument.  For  if  all  man's  higher  needs, 
aims,  desires,  aspirations,  demand  an  object,  then 
there  is  an  object :  the  appetite  proves  the  food.  So 
the  Psalmist :  ' f  For  Thee  my  soul  hath  thirsted ;  for 
Thee  my  flesh,  O  how  many  ways!"  (Ps.  Ixii.  2). 
In  the  spiritual  life,  wants,  longings,  aspirations  are 
the  appetite;  the  food  is  God.  The  entire  possession 
of  God,  in  very  deed  and  reality,  in  nature  and  per- 

— this  is   the   adequate  satisfaction  of  the   soul. 


vi  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

Its  realization  is  in  sharing  the  divine  Sonship.     For 

This  union  must  oe  m          .  .,      _     ,  _._.., 

a  state  of  filiation.  union  with  God,  as  He  is  known  to  unaided  nature, 
is  not  enough.  By  the  creative  act  God  made  me 
in  His  image,  yet  only  His  creature ;  I  long  to  be 
His  son,  "For  the  expectation  of  the  creature  wait- 
eth  for  the  revelation  of  the  sons  of  God"  (Romans 
viii.  19).  There  is  a  divine  communication  which 
I  need,  and  which  yet  transcends  all  my  natural 
gifts  :  I  must  share  God's  natural  gifts.  I  must  be 
His  son. 

The   widest   horizon  of  the   soul  has   a   beyond   of 

Peering  beyond  the  truth   and  virtue,    whose  very  existence  is  not  under- 
natural  horizon.  ,        ,  , 

stood  by   the  mere   natural   man,    and    only   the   dim 

outlines  of  which  are  caught  by  the  uttermost  stretch 
of  vision  of  even  the  regenerate  soul.  Hardly  can 
•  human  nature  steadily  contemplate  this  lofty  and  glori* 
ous  state,  even  when  it  is  revealed,  much  less  compasa 
its  possession ;  and  yet  man  instantly  learns  tha* 
there  is  his  j Carney's  end.  The  dearest  victory  of 
mere  nature  is  to  know  that  there  is  something 
somewhere  in  the  spiritual  universe  which  it  need? 
*  and  cannot  of  itself  possess ;  we  have  a  measure  of 
God  which  overlaps  all  that  we  by  nature  posses* 
of  Him. 

There  is  a  strength   of  character  everywhere  made 
Reaching  towards  su-  known  to  man  as  the  highest  fruit  of  knowledge  and 

pernatural  strength.       -^    &nd    which     .g    yet    strange    to    him  .     a    strength 

to  conquer  time  and  space,  moral  weakness  and 
mental  darkness — divine  strength.  This  strength  he 
feels  the  need  of;  striving  alone,  he  cannot  have  it. 
This  strength  of  God  and  the  character  which  it 
generates  in  us  have  ever  claimed  and  received  the 
name  supernatural.  Man  obtains  this  quality  of  be- 
ing by  the  infusion  of  a  new  life  in  the  spiritual 
regeneration  by  which  he  is  made  God's  son.  He 


JESUS  CHRIST  IS  GOD.  wii 

sees  the  glory  from  afar,  and  then  he  hears,  "Un- 
less a  man  be  born  again  he  cannot  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  God"  (John  iii.  3). 

The  inequality  of  men   and  the  difference  of  races 
cry  aloud  for  universal  possession  of  God.     There  is  Longing  for  supema- 

.  .  .  .  tural  equality  among 

no  joy  of  life  which   can   be  universal  except  it   be  men> 
God.     There  is  Greek  and  barbarian,  bond  and  free, 
male  and  female,  and  their  common  medium  of  unity, 
as  well  as  their  common  joy,   can  only  be  God,    re- 
vealed as  a  father. 

The  dignity  of  man  suggests  the  possibility  of  the 
Incarnation ;  the  aspirations  of  man  suggest  its  prob-  Summary  of  antece- 
ability ;  the  degradation  of  man  cries  out  for  it,   and  d'ntT  Probabilities  of 

1  the  Incarnation. 

implores  its  immediate  gift.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  entire  human  race  has  ever  expected  that  God 
would  come  among  men.  The  ignoble  taint  of 
idolatry  is  thus  palliated — a  vice  so  widespread  and 
deep-rooted  that  without  palliation  it  were  fatal  to  hu- 
manity's claim  of  dignity. 

"  U),  THIS  IS  OUR  GOD  :  WE  HAVE  WAITED 
FOR   HIM  !  " 

The  palliation  of  the  guilt  of  self-worship  by 
ancient  humanity  is  in  the  truth  that,  somehow  or  Aginative  of  ancient 
other,  man  is  or  can  be  made  one  with  God.  That 
any  error  may  be  possible  of  credence,  it  must  taste 
of  truth  ;  man's  palate  cannot  abide  unmixed  false- 
hood. Now,  in  many  forms  of  idolatry  men  beheld 
the  possible  deity  instead  of  the  real.  When  we  con- 
sider what  the  Incarnation  proved  human  nature 
capable  of,  we  can  pity  as  well  as  condemn  that 
highest  form  of  idolatry  called  hero-worship.  "  Ye 
shall  be  as  gods"  (Gen.  iii.  5)  was  a  cunning  tempta- 
tion, because  Adam  and  Eve  already  felt  within  them 
a  dignity  with  something  divine  in  it. 


viii  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

In   the  far   East   the    Chinese,    the  Japanese,    and 

Immemorial    expect-  other  kindred  natiOns  have  cherished   an  immemorial 
ancy  of  the  incarna- 
tion, tradition    that   God   was    to    descend    upon   earth   m 

visible  form,  to  enlighten  men's  ignorance  in  per- 
son, and  redeem  them  from  their  sins.  One  of  the 
most  precious  results  of  the  later  learning  has  been 
to  show  that  the  Hindus  and  the  Persians,  the 
two  dominant  races  of  southern  and  central  Asia, 
looked  for  nothing  less  than  Che  coming  of  the  Su- 
preme Being  among  men,  to  cleanse  them  from  vice 
and  to  elevate  them  to  virtue.  The  Egyptians, 
Plutarch  tells  us,  looked  for  the  advent  of  the  Son 
of  Isis  as  a  God-redeemer  of  the  world.  Humboldt 
•  has  recorded  that  among  the  aboriginal  Mexicans 
there  was  a  firm  belief  in  the  Supreme  God  of 
Heaven,  who  would  send  his  own  Son  upon  earth  to 
destroy  evil.  The  same  is  true  of  the  ancient  Peru- 
vians. 

But  how  much  clearer  was  this  tradition  among 
The  witness  of  the  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans,  the  two  most  powerful 
sages  of  Greece  and  and  most  enlightened  races  of  antiquity,  and  how 

Rome.  .  . 

energetic  was  its  expression  !  Socrates,  at  once  tne 
wisest  man  of  heathendom  and  the  most  guileless, 
taught  his  disciples,  and  through  them  the  entire 
western  civilization,  man's  iricompetency  to  know  his 
whole  duty  to  God  and  his  neighbor,  and  his  in- 
ability to  perform  even  what  he  does  know  of  it; 
and  he  implored  a  universal  teacher  from  above. 
Plato  bears  witness  to  this  teaching  of  his  master  and 
reaffirms  it. 

The   Romans   had    their    Sibylline   prophecy    of  a 
divine  kinS  who  was  to  come  to  save  the  world.     The 
phers.  illustrious  orator   Cicero,  the   enchanting  poet   Virgil, 

voice  this  tradition  or  this  instinct  of  their  imperial 
race:  God  is  needed,  and  needed  in  visible  form* 


JESUS  CHRIST  IS  GOD.  ix 

The  historians  Tacitus  and  Suetonius  tell  of  the  uni- 
versal conviction,  based  on  ancient  and  unbroken 
tradition,  that  a  great  conqueror,  who  should  sub- 
jugate the  world,  was  to  come  from  Judea. 

So  that  the  long-drawn  cry  of  the  Hebrew  prophets, 
now  wailing,  now  jubilant,  always  as  sure  as  life  The  Hebrews  and 
and  death,  and  in  the  course  of  ages  rising  and  fall-  their  Pr°Phets- 
ing  in  multitudinous  cadence  among  those  hills  which 
formed  the  choir  of  the  world's  temple,  was  not  the 
monotone  of  a  single  race,  but  the  dominant  note  in 
the  harmony  of  all  races.  "God  Himself  will  come 
and  will  save  you,"  says  Isaias  (xxxv.  4)  in  solemn 
prediction.  And  again:  "  I^>,  this  is  our  God;  we 
have  waited  for  Him"  (Isa.  xxxv.  9),  as  if  answer- 
ing by  anticipation  the  question  asked  by  John  the 
Baptist  on  the  part  of  humanity  :  ' '  Art  thou  He 
that  art  to  come?"  (Matt.  xi.  3).  No  voice  ever 
heard  by  man  has  sounded  so  deep,  clear,  peace- 
ful, and  authoritative  as  that  which  said  in  Judea  : 
"  I  am  come  that  they  may  have  life,  and  may  have 
it  more  abundantly"  (John  x.  10).  They  that  shall 
hearken  to  that  voice,  "to  them  shall  be  given  the 
power  to  be  made  the  sons  of  God"  (John  i.  12). 

Here,  then,  is  the  meaning  of  the  promises  made 
of  old.  Even  to  Adam  a  Redeemer  was  promised. 
Abraham  was  His  chosen  stock,  Israel  His  race,  coming  foretold. 
David  His  house  and  family.  By  Isaias  His  attri- 
butes were  sung,  by  Daniel  His  coming  was  fixed 
as  to  time,  by  Micheas  Bethlehem  was  named  as 
the  place  of  His  birth.  The  angel  foretold  His  titles, 
His  royalty,  and  His  divinity  to  Mary,  His  mother. 
The  question,  "Where  is  He  that  is  born  King  of 
the  Jews?"  (Matt.  ii.  2),  put  to  the  doctors  and 
rulers  of  Jerusalem  by  the  first  pilgrims  to  His  shrine, 
was  answered  with  decision  and  the  spot  pointed  out. 


x  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

O  what  a  boon  !     To  possess  God,   and  to  possess 
The  boon  of  God's       Him   as   our    Brother;    to   have    His   Father    as    our 

fatherhood,     brother- 
hood and  spouseship.  father,  His   Spirit  as  the  spouse  of  our  souls !     What 

are  all  the  joys  of  this  life  but  mockeries  compared 
to  the  possession  of  God!  O  that  serene,  gentle, 
tender  Master,  who  came  on  earth  to  teach  us  how 
to  become  divine !  O  that  valiant  Saviour  who  died 
that  we  might  live  the  life  of  God  ! 

"MY   LORD   AND   MY   GOD ! " 

Christianity   is  historical.      It  deals  with  the    life 
Christianity  is  the  his-  which  the  human  race  has  lived.     It  is  not  a  theory 
tory  of  its  Founder.      to   be  considered    in   the   abstract.     It   is   a   fact.     It 
has  been  a  fact.     It  belongs  to  that  narrative  of  men's 
lives  and  deeds  which  we  call  history.     And  Christian- 
ity is  especially  the   life   and   the  deeds  of  one  man 
— its  Founder,  Jesus  Christ. 

Look    at   Christ    as  a    promise   and    a    fulfilment. 
The  effrontery  of  say-  The  Jews  expected  Him,  the  nations  dreamed  of  Him. 

ing  that  Jesus  Christ  J 

never  existed.  He  came,  and   His  name  and  power  have  overspread 

the  earth.  What  an  astonishing  thought !  Yet  men 
have  had  the  brazen  boldness  to  assert,  and  to  try 
to  prove,  that  Christ  never  existed  !  This  greatest, 
not  only  fact  but  factor  in  all  human  history  was  a 
myth.  Though  the  Gospels  were  written  by  eye- 
witnesses or  their  depositaries,  though  Jewish  con- 
temporary history  tells  of  Him,  though  heathen  con- 
temporary records  tell  of  Him,  though  the  tracings 
of  ancient  art  teil  of  Him,  though  the  unbroken 
traditions  of  the  whole  race  tell  of  Him,  men  arose 
a  hundred  years  ago  and  said  He  had  never  existed 
at  all.  He  existed  in  prophecy  from  Adam's  time. 
The  oldest  and  most  venerable  monuments  of  history 
tell  of  His  promise  on  the  spot  and  in  the  hour  of 
the  first  sin ;  of  the  dedication  of  a  family  and  then 


JESUS  CHRIST  IS  GOD.  xi 

of  a    race  to   produce   Him ;    of   the    expectation   of 

the   nations   dimly   seeing   a   future    Redeemer;    of  a  Jesus  in  prophecy  and 

in  fulfilment. 

line  of  prophets,  workers  01  marvels,  poets  ;  of  the 
gathering  of  the  ages  into  the  fulness  of  time,  of 
the  nations  into  the  unity  of  government,  and  then 
of  His  coming,  the  God  of  ages,  the  King  of  nations 
—the  gift  which  tlie  bending  heavens  dropped  into 
Mary's  bosom,  the  renewal  of  all  things  below. 

There   is   nothing   that   we   claim  for  Jesus  Christ 
that  He  has  not  claimed  for  Himself,  and  His  testi-  He  is  His  own  witness, 
mony  is  true.     He  has  established  a  character  before 
the  world  in  which  a  most  conspicuous  trait  is  truth- 
fulness.     Who    has   so    much   as    accused   Christ    of 
being  an  impostor?     *'  For  this  was  I  born,    for   this 
came   I  into  the  world,   that  I  might  bear  testimony  The  truth-teller  of  the 
to    the    truth"     (John    xviii.    37).     Here   and    there  ages* 
this  claim  of  Christ  of  being  a  truth-teller   has   been 
denied,   but  only  by  some   delirious  atheist  who  thus 
utters  his  own  condemnation.       "  Never  did  man  speak 
like   this   man"    (John   vii.    46),    is    the   spontaneous 
judgment  of  humanity  upon  Christ. 

But  also,  "His  word  was  with  power"  (Luke  iv. 
32).  He  showed  Himself  the  Master  of  nature  at  His  truthfulness  au. 
the  same  time  that  He  claimed  a  hearing  as  a  mes-  ^f^^  by  mira" 
senger  from  God.  "This  beginning  of  miracles  did 
Jesus  at  Cana  of  Galilee,  and  He  manifested  His 
glory,  and  His  disciples  believed  in  Him"  (John  ii. 
n).  He  stills  the  storm,  He  walks  on  the  water, 
He  vanishes  out  of  sight,  He  reappears  from  empty 
space.  "Receive  thy  sight,"  He  says  (Luke  xviii. 
42),  and  a  man  born  blind  is  made  to  see,  and 
this  is  part  of  His  sermon.  He  groans  and  lifts  His 
eyes  to  Heaven,  and  a  dumb  man  speaks,  and  this 
accredits  His  message ;  such  events  were  the  uni- 
versal accompaniments  of  His  teachings.  "Young 


xii  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

man,  I  say  to  thee,  arise  "   (Luke  vii.  14),  and  the 
The  supreme  evidence  dead  bod     Became  alive,  sat  up  and  began  to  speak: 

of  His  resurrection.  r 

and  upon  such  evidences  of  His  power  Jesus  ad- 
dressed the  people.  "Lazarus,  come  forth!"  (John 
xi.  43);  who  could  resist  Christ  preaching  at  the  grave 
of  Lazarus?  Only  the  malicious  and  the  perverse. 
Then  they  slew  Him.  He  was  dead  and  buried, 
His  followers  scattered,  His  career  ruined.  And  again 
He  is  alive.  He  is  seen,  touched,  heard,  lived  with 
by  all  His  old  associates  and  followers  to  the  num- 
ber of  five  hundred,  teaching  a  doctrine  which  is  the 
very  perfection  and  fulfilment  of  what  He  had  taught 
before.  From  all  tljis  we  know  with  absolute  cer- 
tainty that  Christ's  testimony  of  Himself,  as  well 
as  of  everything  else,  is  true.  "  Master,"  said  Nico- 
demus,  ' '  we  know  that  Thou  art  a  teacher  come 
from  God,  for  no  man  could  do  the  works  which 
Thou  dost,  unless  God  were  with  him"  (John  iii.  2). 
Now,  what  is  Christ  according  to  His  own  testi- 
HOW  Jesus  testifies  to  mony  ?  He  is  God.  To  His  own  disciples  He  said: 
His  own  divinity.  «Have  I  been  so  long  a  time  with  you  and  you 
have  not  known  Me  ?  He  that  seeth  Me  seeth  the 
Father"  (John  xiv.  9).  And  He  insisted:  -"Believe 
you  not  that  I  am  in  the  Father  and  the  Father 
in  Me?  Otherwise  believe  for  the  very  works'  sake" 
(John  xiv.  n,  12).  This  was  an  appeal  to  a  sense 
of  Christ's  divinity  bestowed  by  Him  upon  all  who 
ever  came  near  Him,  vague  or  distinct  in  proportion 
to  the  intelligence  and  good  will  of  its  recipients. 
my'  Lacordaire  calls  this  ".a  mystic  certainty,"  which 
viewed  in  its  interior  manifestations  we  shall  con- 
sider more  fully  before  concluding.  "That  all  should 
honor  the  Son  even  as  they  honor  the  Father  "  (John 
v.  23)  was  Christ's  precept,  and  the  worship  of  Je- 
hovah insensibly  passed  into  that  of  the  Messias, 


JESUS  CHRIST  IS  GOD.  xiii 

absorbing  it  totally  in  the  hearts  of  Christ's  dis- 
ciples. It  was  indeed  only  by  degrees  that  this  domi-  £!^'»  Profession  of 
nated  the  Apostles.  "Thou  art  Christ,  the  Son  of  the 
living  God"  (Matt.  xvi.  16),  the  first  proclamation 
of  the  Apostolic  faith,  was  made  by  Peter ;  and 
' '  Flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  this  to  thee,  but 
My  Father  "  (Matt.  xvi.  17),  was  our  Lord's  accept- 
ance of  it.  It  made  its  final  conquest  after  the 
Resurrection,  when  Thomas  solemnly  exclaimed :  That  of  Thomas. 
"My  Lord  and  my  God!  "  (John  xx.  28) — his  re- 
luctant mind,  compelled  by  the  testimony  of  his 
senses,  seeing  and  touching  the  risen  body  of  his 
Master.  Our  Saviour's  acceptance  of  these  divine 
titles — "Because  thou  hast  seen,  Thomas,  thou  hast 
believed.  Blessed  are  they  who  have  not  seen  and 
have  believed"  (John  xx.  29) — is  most  conclusive 
of  His  doctrine.  He  accepts  Thomas's  profession  of 
faith,  adopts  it,  anticipates  its  use  by  others  as  the 
formula  of  a  belief  in  their  case  unsupported  by 
sensible  contact  with  His  bodily  existence. 

The  result  of  Christ's  teaching  was  the  unanimous 
conviction  of  His  followers  that  He  was  divine.  The  The  unanimous  faith 
Gospel  and  Epistles  of  St.  John,  the  latest  of  the  of  His followers- 
Apostolic  writers,  are  conclusive  of  this.  As  to  the 
public  attitude  of  the  Society  which  appeared  in  the 
world  as  the  Christian  Church,  St.  Paul's  teaching 
is  full,  is  variously  expressed,  and  is  all  summarized 
by  such  words  as  these:  "Who,  being  in  the  form 
of  God,  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal  with 
God"  (Phil.  ii.  6);  and  again:  "For  in  Him 
dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily"  (Col. 
ii.  9). 

Is  it  realized  how  difficult   it  must  have  been  to    . 
teach   honest    Hebrews,   who   loathed    idolatry   above 
every  evil,  that  a  man  of  their  nation  and  like  them- 


xiv  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

selves  was  Jehovah  come  in  the  flesh?  Jesus  did 
itf  though  not  b^  the  immediate  promulgation  of 

incarnation.  tne   great  doctrine,  which  would  have  shocked-  them. 

But  first  He  secured  a  place  as  Master  by  the  testi- 
mony of  John  the  Baptist,  and  then  by  His  astound- 
ing miracles,  and  always  by  the  impress  of  His 
resistless  love  and  wisdom.  Afterwards  He  allowed 
His  divinity  to  be  taught  by  His  works,  by  His 
character,  previously  or  in  conjunction  with  His  own 
explicit  claim  to  be  divine. 
.  The  enemies  of  Jesus  were  no  less  impressed  with 

The  spontaneous  and  His  claim  to  be  God  than  were  His  friends.     "They 

official    accusation  of  i  ..     .<  1  1  -11    TT-        -L  TT  •  i    .* 

the  Jews  sought   the   more   to   kill  Him  because  He  said  that 

God  was  His  Father,  making  Himself  equal  to 
God"  (John  v.  18).  In  fact,  when  His  credentials 
as  a  prophet  had  been  fairly  presented,  He  was 
as  ready  to  claim  divine  honors  from  the  Jewish  con- 
spirators as  from  His  own  disciples.  When  they 
quoted  Abraham  against  Him,  He  said:  "Amen, 
amen,  I  say  to  you,  before  Abraham  was  made  I 
am"  (John  viii.  58) — that  expression  /  am  being 
the  traditional  synonym  of  the  Deity  among  the 
Jews.  l '  They  took  up  stones  therefore  to  cast  at 
Him"  (John  x.  31),  because,  as  they  said,  "Being 
a  man,  thou  makest  Thyself  God"  (John  x.  33). 
And  this  was  the  condemnation  of  the  Council  against 
Him,  that  they  had  heard  His  claim  of  divinity 
from  His  own  mouth,  and  needed  no  witnesses  to 
convict  Him  of  it. 

"I  AM   THE   LIGHT   OF  THE   WORLD." 

If  Jesus  Christ  was  a  chosen  messenger  of  God, 

Summary  of  the  argu-  as  all  admit,  He  was,  ist,  a  good  man;  2d,  a  truth- 
ful man;  3d,  an  enlightened  man.'  But  He  believed 
that  He  was  God.  Hence  He  was  God.  For  it  is 


JESUS  CHRIST  IS  GOD.  xv 

evidently  impossible,  without  supposing  lunacy,  for 
a  man  to  be  deceived  about  such  a  stupendous  thing 
as  to  whether  He  is  God  or  not. 

There    are    many    who   admit    Christ    as   a    great  Can  Christ  have  been 
leader,  but  deny  to  Him  the  divine  attributes.     John  a  great  and  good  man, 
Stuart   Mill  has    somewhere  said  that   he   knows    no  and  nothin8:  more  ? 
better  canon  of  conduct  before  any  act  than  that  the 
man    who    is    about    to    do    it    should    ask    himself 
whether    Jesus   Christ    would    approve    of  it,    or    the 
contrary  ;  and  yet  Mill  was  almost  an  atheist.     Such 
men  are  numerous,  and  the  deists  among  them  freely 
admit  that  Christ  was  God's  foremost  champion,   His 
best   accredited    messenger,    the    true    leader    of   the 
human   race.      Now,    what  we   say  to   these  persons 
is,  that  if  they  are  right,   then  Christ  must  be  God, 
otherwise   God   is  the  author  of  idolatry,    for   Christ 
won  divine  worship  from  the  beginning. 

The   mission   of   Christ  to   the   world   is  the   most 
distinctively    moral   and   religious    intervention   of  an  The  relatlon  of 

Christ's  mission  to  an 

overruling  Providence  in  the  affairs  of  humanity  overruling  Providence 
which  ever  took  place.  But  its  characteristic  is  the 
claim  of  divinity  on  Christ's  part,  and  the  recogni- 
tion of  that  claim  on  the  part  of  His  followers.  If 
He  be  not  divine,  actually  God,  then  the  Supreme 
Ruler  of  men's  souls  has  failed  both  in  His  mes- 
senger and  His  message,  and  failed  fatally.  Christ 
was  sent  to  eradicate  idolatry,  which  had  grown  to 
be  the  deepest- seated  evil  of  humanity,  and  to  estab- 
lish impregnably  the  very  opposite,  the  knowledge  His  mission  against 
and  worship  of  the  true  God.  The  lightest  belief  idolatry  could  not 

T..    .          -r,         .  ,  .  ,       A.~          .^  ,.  .          ,  .      have  ended  in  a  new 

in   Divine   Providence    identifies    its    rulings    in    this  form  of  idolatry 
sense  with  Christ  and  His  mission — and  they  resulted 
in  universal  Christ- worship.     God  must  have  foreseen 
that  men  would  finally  come  to  adore  Jesus  more  uni- 
versally than  ever  they  had  adored  their  idols.     The 


xvi  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

being  who  conferred  on  His  Apostles  the  power  to 
God's  providence  forgive  sins,  to  shut  and  open  the  gates  of  heaven, 
and  who  accompanied  this  with  the  gift  of  miracles, 
was  most  likely  to  be  adored  as  God  among  the 
idolatrous  nations.  They  could  with  difficulty  be  dis- 
suaded from  paying  divine  honors  to  Paul  and  Barna- 
bas. They  must  have  adored  Christ. 

"  The  hour  cometh  and  now  is  when  the  true 
adorers  sha11  adore  the  Father  in  spirit  and  in  truth," 
— not  if  Jesus  Christ  be  no  more  than  human,  for 
He  has  won  the  world's  adoration.  He  is  no  prophet 
if  He  be  not  God.  Christianity  was  a  revolution  in 
the  moral  and  intellectual  world  so  sudden  and  so 
vast,  and  humanly  speaking  so  inexplicable,  that  it 
proves  its  own  divine  origin. 

The  alternative  of  de-        Certainly  Christ  is  of  God,  from  God,   and  there- 
nying  the  incarnation,  fore  for    God,    whatever   else   may   be    said  of  Him, 
Go   on   and   say  the  rest :  He  is  God,  or  there  is  no 
God. 

The  civilized  world  was  never  conquered  except 
by  one  faith,  a  conquest  in  favor  of  peace  among 
warring  nations,  self-denial  among  the  sensual  and 
covetous,  discipline  among  the  turbulent.  Shall  all 
this  serve  for  mere  idolatry  ? 

Take  away  Christ  and  you  have  robbed  the  human 
race  of  its  only  perfect  hero.  And  has  He  but  sunk 
us  into  a  false  worship  more  hopeless  than  paganism 
itself? 

Take  from  mankind  what  Christ  has  given  of 
Humanity  without  knowledge  and  love  and  joy,  of  freedom  and  of 
purity,  and  what  is  left?  The  ashes  of  the  extinct 
idolatries  of  pagan  Greece  and  Rome,  the  shades  of 
conquerors,  of  orators,  of  poets,  dead  books  and 
crumbling  monuments.  It  will  not  do  to  say  that 
you  have  a  morality  without  Christ  unless  you  frankly 


JESUS  CHRIST  IS  GOD.  xvii 

paganize   in   principle   and   in   practice.     You    cannot 

do  away   with  Christ  and  hold  fast  to  His  morality.  The  beneficent  effects 

..«•..'-.        of  the  adoration  of 

You   cannot  destroy   the  tree  as  a   pest  and  claim  its  Christ  a  cumulative 
fruits  as  a  blessing.     But  men,  taken  in  their  genera-  proof  of  the  incarna- 
tions,   could   not  and  cannot   help  adoring  Him.     He  tlon* 
found  the  world  in  a  state  of  lust,  violence,  tyranny, 
and    horrid    idolatry.      By    His     principles    and    His 
maxims,  by  His  Church,  by  His  saints  and  martyrs, 
He   conquered  it.     His  force  was  unseen  and  yet  re- 
sistless, as  God  is.     Pagan  and  barbarian  went  down 
before  Him   in  a   war  of  ideas.     Could  it  have  been 
other  than  a  divine  victory? 

In  ancient  times  the  entire  effort  of  Providence 
was  to  hold  men  to  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  or  Providence,  Christ, 
to  restore  them  to  it.  This  was  especially  the  case  andidolatry- 
in  His  dealings  with  the  Jews.  Shall  the  final  effort 
result  in  the  annihilation  of  that  worship  ?  To  main- 
tain the  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  Noe,  Abra- 
ham, Moses,  David  wrought  as  divine  instruments, 
all  in  direct  line  with  the  Christ  to  whom  they  all 
pointed,  foreshadowing  and  predicting  Him  as  the 
perfection  of  their  work.  He  comes,  lives,  teaches, 
dies,  establishes  His  fellowship,  and  wins  the  nations. 
It  could  not  have  been  for  idolatry,  and  yet  He  is 
adored.  If  God  hates  anything  it  is  idolatry,  and 
Christ  is  His  foremost  representative. 

If  Christ    be    not    God,    He    is  the   author  of  the 
most  obstinate  idolatry  ever  known.     No  teaching  so  The  triumph  of  Christ 
awfully  authoritative  as  His,  no  life  so  irresistibly  at- 
tractive,  no  death  so  solemn  and  so  triumphant.     Has 
the  only  result  been  idolatry  ? 

We  have  already  given  Christ's  direct  claim  upon 
men's  worship,  and  shown  how  both  His  disciples 
and  His  enemies  understood  it.  But  utterances  which 
compared  with  these  are  commonplace  and  vague, 


XVlll 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CtfKIST. 


Christ's  claim  of 
eternal  life  : 


— the  source  of  virtue  ; 


— the  source  of  author  • 
ity; 


— the  supreme  judge ; 


— the    object    of   su- 
preme worship ; 


—oneness  with  the 
Father. 


would  be  enough  in  the  ir.outh  of  any  other  re- 
ligious teacher  to  convict  him  of  usurping  divine 
honors  : 

"  1,0,  I  am  with  you  all  days,  even  to  the  con- 
summation of  the  world"  (Matt,  xxviii.  20).  Who 
commands  the  lapse  of  ages  but  the  King  of  ages? 

"  I  am  the  vine;  you  the  branches.  ...  If 
any  one  remaineth  not  in  Me,  he  shall  be  cast  forth 
as  a  branch  "  (John  xv.  5,  6).  Who  but  God  could 
say  such  words? 

"Keep   My   commandments"    (John   xiv.    15). 

"  He  that  loveth  father  or  mother  more  than 
Me  is  not  worthy  of  Me"  (Matt.  x.  37). 

"  Many  sins  are  forgiven  her  because  she  hath 
loved  much"  (I,uke  vii.  47).  Was  Magdalen  an 
idolater  ? 

"  If  any  man  come  to  Me  and  hate  not  his  father 
and  mother,  and  wife  and  children,  and  brethren 
and  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life  also,  he  cannot  be 
My  disciple"  (Luke  xiv.  26).  What  claim  is  this 
for  any  mere  man  to  make  upon  his  fellow-man  ? 

"That  they  may  all  be  one,  as  Thou,  Father,  in 
Me  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in 
Us,  and  that  the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  hast 
sent  Me"  (John  xvii.  21).  Here  is  a  claim  of 
headship  of  the  human  race,  based  on  His  union 
with  the  Father  and  as  a  sign  of  the  Father's  ap- 
proval. In  the  pagan  world,  the  faintest  claim  of 
divinity  on  the  part  of  a  great  benefactor  of  the  race 
added  another  name  to  the  long  list  of  false  gods. 
Would  the  true  God  allow  one  who,  besides  being 
a  great  and  good  man,  was  His  chosen  messenger,  to 
plunge  the  world  into  darker  depths  of  idolatry  ? 
Even  without  Christ,  the  progress  of  intelligence,  as 
we  see  it  in  history,  would  probably  have  done 


JESUS  CHRIST  IS  GOD.  xix 

away   with    idolatry    in   course   of    time.      If  He    be 

not   God,   He   has   fastened   it   more   firmly   upon  the  Summary  of  the  argu- 

.  .  '  -,    t  •  .      nient    from  an  over- 

race  ;    His    wisdom    is    an    idolatrous    sophistry,    His  ruiing  providence. 

tenderness  of  heart  an  idolatrous  snare,  His  romantic, 

touching,    winning  career  a   lure   to  the  unwary.     If 

Christ  is  not  God,  who  can  blame  us  for  being  idola- 

ters ?     How  long  the  divine  worship  of  Him  has  en- 

dured !  —  far  longer  than  that  of  the   mythical  deities 

of   Greece   and   Rome  ;    how   deep   it   is,    how  wide  ! 

Where,  then,    is  Providence   if  this  be  not  the  true 

worship  ? 

"I  KNOW  MINE  AND  MINE  KNOW  ME." 

The  entire  human  race  is  divided  into  two  classes, 
those  who   know   Christ  in  the   inner  life   and   those  The  value  of  the  »»ner 
who   do    not.     The   former    bear  testimony   of    Christ  ™s 


to  the  latter,  and  their  testimony  is  true.  The 
value  of  this  inner  witness  is  shown  by  the  large 
number  of  persons  who  are  silenced  but  not  convinced 
by  the  outward  and  historical  testimonies  for  Christ  ; 
conviction  comes  to  them  only  after  an  interior  ex- 
perience. 

The  work  of  Christ  is  personal.     From  man  to  man 
He  goes,  teaches,   exhorts,   entreats,  by  word,  by  in-  The  union  of  the 
fluence.     If  He  sends  a  messenger  without,   He  stirs  outer  with  the  inn* 
the   heart    within   to   hearken    to   the    message.      No 
book  can  make  a  man  a  Christian.     No  man  or  num- 
ber  of  men   can   do   it  unless   they   be  Christ-bearers 
in  life   and  doctrine,   and   Christ's  Spirit  work  mean- 
time in  a  hidden  way.     On  the  other  hand,  there   are 
men  to  whom  Christ  would  be  known  if  all  the  books, 
in  the  world  were  burned. 

'  '  Come  unto  ME  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
burdened"    (Matt.   xi.    28). 

The  evidence  of  which  we  speak  is  not  that  of  an 


xx  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

exceptional   experience,   but  of  a  cloud  of  witnesses. 
This   personal  testi-  In  ey        community   in  the  civilized  world  there  are 

mony  is  universal. 

at  least  a  few  leading  spirits,  leading  in  all  moral 
and  beneficent  activity,  and  easily  distinguishable 
from  fanatics  and  visionaries,  who  characterize  their 
lives  as  transformed  by  Christ;  and  with  them  and 
around  them  is  a  multitude  in  a  lower  grade  of  con- 
scious union  with  Him.  All  these  together  and 
everywhere  are  the  kingdom  of  the  Son  of  God. 
The  evidence  of  personal  knowledge  of  Christ  given 
St.  Augustine.  by  such  men  as  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Francis  of 

Assisi,  though  none  of  them  ever  saw  Him  with 
their  bodily  eyes,  carries  conviction.  They  say  with 
the  Apostle :  '  *  The  Spirit  Himself  giveth  testimony 
to  our  spirit"  (Rom.  viii.  16).  Listen  to  St.  Augus- 
tine: •"  What,  then,  is  it  that  I  love,  when  I  love 
Thee?  Neither  the  beauty  of  the  body,  nor  the 
graceful  order  of  time,  nor  the  brightness  of  light 
so  agreeable  to  these  eyes,  nor  the  sweet  melody  of 
all  sorts  of  music,  nor  the  fragrant  scent  of  flowers, 
oils,  or  spices,  nor  the  sweet  taste  of  manna .  or 
honey,  nor  fair  limbs  alluring  to  carnal  embraces. 
None  of  these  things  do  I  love  when  I  love  my 
God.  And  yet  I  love  a  certain  light,  and  a  certain 
voice,  and  a  certain  fragrancy,  and  a  certain  food, 
and  a  certain  embrace  when  I  love  my  God,  the  light, 
the  voice,  the  fragrancy,  the  food,  and  the  embrace  of 
my  inward  man ;  where  that  shines  to  my  soul  which 
no  place  can  contain;  and  where  that  sounds  which  no 
time  can  measure ;  and  where  that  smells  which  no  blast 
can  disperse;  and  where  that  relishes  which  no  eating 
can  diminish;  and  where  that  is  embraced  which  no 
satiety  can  separate.  This  it  is  that  I  love  when  I 
love  my  God"  Such  witnesses  reaffirm,  in  a  word,  by 
speech,  and  more  than  all  by  action,  the  conscious 


JESVS  CHRIST  IS  GOD.  xxi 

presence    of   that    "hidden    man    of    the  heart"    of 

whom  St.  Peter  (I.   Ep.  iii.  4)  says  that  He  manifests  Thei(?entityof 

.,.;.  .  Christ's  influence  witt 

Himself   "in   the   incorruptibility    of  a    quiet  and   a  a  new  inner  life, 
meek -spirit." 

The  greatest  activity  of  Christ  is  invisible,  and 
His  noblest  victories  are  in  the  secret  trysting-places 
of  love  in  the  thoughts  of  men.  The  elevating  and 
purifying  influence  known  as  the  Christian  Inner 
lyife,  is  neither  a  mere  force  nor  an  idea  ;  it  is  a  Per- 
son. It  is  Christ.  It  is  the  introduction  of  a  new 
life,  His  own  life,  into  men's  souls ;  not  superimposed 
upon  the  mind,  nor  imputed  to  the  soul,  but  infused 
into  it  by  the  spirit  of  God.  "I  live,  now  not  I,  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me"  (Gal.  ii.  20). 

This  new  life   is,    in   its  consciousness,    a  new   in- 
terior   experience,    carrying    the   soul   far    above   the  How  he  dominates 
highest  flight   of    reason,    and   dominating   it  with   a  reason- 
divine   authority.     It  is  the  most  personal  of  all  our 
unions,    and   is   therefore  entirely  capable  of  descrip- 
tion.    The  simple  affirmation  of  this  inner  experience 
is  of  weight  as  an  argument.     "  I  know  He  is  God," 
says  the  Christian,    "for  my  inner  life  has  proved  it 
to  me." 

Apart  from  the  graces  attached  to  office,  the  real 
power  of  religious  organizations  to  convince  is  not  in 
the  spectacle  of  disciplined  masses,  but  in  the  in-  The  resistless  Persua" 

siveness  of  regenerate 

fluence  of  regenerate  persons ;  let  them  move  forward  men. 
in  unity,  and  everything  bows  before  their  banners. 
The  impulse  of  a  soul  filled  with  God  upon  one 
wanting,  or  at  least  needing,  to  be  so  filled,  is  con- 
stantly proved  and  acknowledged  to  be  resistless. 
Such  evidences  as  revelation  and  history  give  of 
authority,  unity,  continuity,  and  universality  are  all 
concerning  divine  qualities,  whose  possession  is  a 
necessary  note  of  Christ's  fellowship.  But  Christ's 


xxii  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

kingdom  is  not  exclusively  external.     "  The  kingdom 

Asa  motive  of  credi-  of   God    ig  within  you  »    (Luke  xyii.    2J)>      The  testi. 
Dility« 

mony  of  the  inner  life  is  that  of  a  living  and  present 
witness,  and  it  is  a  high  motive  of  credibility.  It 
is  monopolized  by  Christians ;  no  such  union  is 
claimed  by  un-Christian  religions:  "I  know  Mine, 
and  Mine  know  Me"  (John  x.  14). 

The  dogmatic  position   of  this    truth   is  given  by 
This  interior  force  de-  the  Council  of  Trent,  which  affirms,  as  a  fundamental 

fined  by  the  Council  ' 

of  Trent.  article  of  faith,  that  belief  and  hope  and  love  and  re- 

pentance, if  worth  anything  for  eternal  life,  must  be 
preceded  in  the  soul  by  the  inspiration  of  the  Spirit 
of  God,  which  is  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  Christians  tell 
you  that  by  faith  they  know  Jesus  Christ  as  one  per- 
son knows  another ;  and  although  this  personal  knowl- 
edge is  in  a  dark  manner,  yet  they  say  truly,  "I 
know  whom  I  have  believed,  and  I  am  certain"  (II. 
Tim.  i.  12). 

Faith  is  that  interior  perception,  quick   and  clear, 

It  generates  new  pow-  by  which  the  intelligence  recognizes  the  teacher  and 

er  of  knowing  truth.  accepts  the  truth  which  he  teaches,  and  this  is  con- 
ferred by  Christ  as  a  new  and  superior  activity  of 
the  power  of  knowing.  It  is  the  baptismal  gift,  the 
first  pledge  of  the  supernatural  life.  In  the  light  of 
faith  Christ  reveals  Himself  as  God,  and  it  is  to 
create  and  maintain  this  inner  power  that  Church, 
Scripture,  and  tradition  are  given  us.  In  it  the  human 
mind  is  endowed  with  a  force  far  beyond  its  natural 
gifts,  and  is  made  partaker  of  a  divine  activity.  It 
is  an  unshakable  certainty  of  conviction,  a  heavenly 
clearness  of  perception,  and  an  intuitive  knowledge 

Intuitive  knowledge,  of  a  kind  superior  to  that  of  natural  reason  ;  it  is 
what  the  Apostle  calls  ' '  having  the  mind  of  Christ ' ' 
(I.  Cor.  ii.  16).  This  has  a  twofold  effect  on  us: 
one  to  dominate  the  mental  forces,  and  the  other  to 


jESt/S  CHRIST  IS  GOD.  zxiii 

stimulate  their  activity,  proposing  to  them  an  infinitely 
adequate  end.  "Faith  is  the  substance  of  things 
hoped  for,  the  conviction  of  things  that  appear  not " 
(Heb.  xi.  i).  So  that  Christian  faith  is  the  evidence 
of  the  substantial  personal  presence  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  within  us. 

The  first   fruit   of   faith  is  hope — "  Christ,    in   you 

Al        ,  ,       ,          , ,     /~    ,  \      ^  •  Eternal  hope  is  pecu- 

the   hope   of   glory'      (Col.    n.    27);   that    is   to    say,  iiariy Christian. 

out  of  the  root  of  high  and  supernatural  knowledge 
of  Christ's  divine  presence  within  me  springs  a  divine 
assurance  of  His  purpose  that  the  union  shall  be  per- 
petual. We  have  faith  in  order  that  we  may  know 
Christ,  the  object  of  love ;  hope  that  we  may  courage- 
ously journey  towards  our  heavenly  home ;  but  we 
have  love  that  we  may  possess  Christ,  for  love  is  the 
unitive  virtue.  Faith  says :  Christ  is  here ;  Hope 
says :  He  will  abide ;  Love  says  :  He  is  mine.  We  Love  is  the  perfect 
know  that  it  is  the  Divine  Son  that  is  within  us,  for  fruit  of  the  Inca* 

-._ .  .  nation. 

His  presence  communicates  to  us  a  son's  love  for  the 
Eternal  Father.  "  Because  you  are  sons,  God  has 
sent  the  Spirit  of  His  Son  into  your  hearts,  crying 
Abba,  Father"  (Gal.  iv.  6). 

Faith,  hope  and  charity,  knowledge,  confidence 
and  love,  are  the  entire  life  of  the  renewed  man.  The  life  of  a  man  r» 
"Now  I  live;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me"  ne  wed  by  Christ. 
(Gal.  ii.  20).  Surely  a  man- can  give  testimony  of 
his  life ;  and  such  is  the  witness  of  the  Christian  to 
Christ.  Faith  is  the  light,  and  hope  is  the  warmth, 
but  love  is  the  very  fire  of  Jesus  Christ  in  our 
hearts.  "  Was  not  our  heart  burning  within  us 
whilst  He  spoke  in  the  way  and  opened  to  us  the 
Scriptures"  (Luke  xxiv.  32),  said  the  two  who  met 
Him  on  the  way  to  Emmaus.  This  explains  why 
simple  men  can  stand  their  ground  against  learned 
scoffers.  Even  when  puzzled  by  sophistries  they  have 


xxiv  LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

an  interior  view  of  the  truth,  coupled  with  a  personal 
guarantee.  Resistance  to  doubt  as  well  as  to  vice  is 
confided  by  them  to  that  hidden  man  of  the  heart  of 
whom  St.  Peter  speaks. 

This  interior  union  with  Christ  is  the  spur  of 
Practical  results  of  the  heroism,  the  seed  of  martyrdom,  the  sweetness  of  re- 
Christian  faith,  pentance,  the  fortitude  of  weakness,  all  of  which  forces 
are  arguments  bearing  witness  to  their  origin:  "  I 
can  do  all  things  in  Him  who  strengtheneth  me ' ' 
(Phil.  iv.  13).  No  man  has  ever  deliberately  adhered 
to  the  doctrine  of  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God,  and 
sought  to  obey  His  precepts,  but  that  his  inner  life 
was  most  distinctly  enlightened  and  inflamed  with  a 
force  far  above  his  natural  capacity — a  force  consciously 
present,  and  felt  to  be  divine.  "If  a  man  will  do  the 
will  of  Him,  then  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine 
whether  it  be  from  God,  or  whether  I  speak  from  My- 
self" (John  vii.  17).  The  affirmation  of  this  by  men 
and  multitudes  is  competent  and  unimpeachable 
evidence.  The  proof  of  it  by  the  martyr's  heroism, 
the  pauper's  cheerful  patience,  the  repentant  sinner's 
abounding  hope,  the  dullard's  wisdom,  the  superhuman 
benevolence  of  the  Sister  of  Charity,  is  irresistible. 
....  Not  only  has  the  Christian  religion  always  looked 

The  co-ordination  of 

the  arguments  true,    it   has  always   felt  true.     We  dwelt  in  the  be- 

ginning upon  the  longing  of  the  soul  for  sonship  with 
God,  affirming  that  as  the  appetite  proves  the  food,  so 
the  divine  sonship  was  not  only  a  possible,  but  alto- 
gether a  probable,  though  supernatural,  end  of  human 
aspiration.  A  co-ordinate  argument  is  the  one  we  are 
now  concluding,  for  digestion  and  assimilation  prove  a 
food  still  more  conclusively  than  appetite.  "He  that 
believeth  in  the  Son  of  God  hath  the  testimony  of  God 
in  himself"  (I.  John  v.  10).  All  who  have  tried  any 
other  object  of  devoted  love — ambition,  science,  pleas- 


JESUS  CHRIST  IS  GOD.  xxv 

ure — mournfully  agree    that  they   remain   unsatisfied. 

All  who  try  this  object  of  burning  human  love   exclaim  Experimental  knowi- 

edge  completes  the 

together,  in  an  ecstasy,   that  they  have  received  a  ml-  force  Of  extrinsic  ar- 

ness  of  satisfaction  beyond  the  scope  of  created   power  guments. 

to  bestow.     The  object  is  divine — it  is  the  only  end  of 

man.     If  I   am  conscious  of  an  excellence  within  me, 

which  is  not  myself  because  it  is  infinite,  and  which 

when    I  love  it  assimilates  me  to  itself,  my  affirmation 

of  its  presence  and  character  commands   respect.     If 

the   analysis  of  a  rain-drop  tells  of  an   infinite   Creator, 

how  much  rather  may  the  introspection  of  a  single  soul 

reveal  the  infinite  I^over  of  men. 

This,  then,  is  the  dogma  of  Christ's  Divinity.  It  was 
the  divine  will  to  renew  the  human  race,  and  to  make  Summary  of  thisEpi 
the  first-born  of  the  new  manhood  the  Only-Begotten 
Son  of  the  Most  High  God.  Man  shall  be  made  par- 
taker of  divinity  by  a  union  of  natures,  his  personal 
existence  shall  become  consciously  divine  and  his  hu- 
manity clothed  with  the  Deity.  This  union  can  be 
fully  expressed  only  by  the  term  Incarnation,  God  be- 
coming flesh.  The  two  natures  of  God  and  man, 
held  distinct  and  each  preserved  intact,  are  yet  made 
one  in  a  single  divine  person,  under  a  single  moral  re- 
sponsibility ;  so  that  in  Jesus  Christ  the  acts  of  a  man 
become  in  a  rigorously  exact  sense  the  acts  of  God. 
His  thoughts  are  illumined  with  an  uncreated  wisdom 
which  is  His  own,  and  His  conduct  is  guided  by  a 
rule  not  only  identical  with  the  righteousness  of  the 
Deity  but  His  own  personal  prerogative  as  well.  This 
is  what  God  meant  to  do  in  restoring  man  to  his 
pristine  nobility,  and  what  He  actually  did  in  the  In- 
carnation. 


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